Aging metal roles

The contribution of different metals and metal compounds to society through socioeconomic development and improvement in the quality of life needs no emphasis. In fact, over the ages, human civilization has wimessed the role of metals in the civilized world as exemplified in the Stone Age, Copper Age, and Bronze Age. Metals and metal compounds have offered benefits to society and their improper use has caused harmful health effects to mankind. 

Metals have characteristics that make them desirable for construction, implements, and ornamental uses such as in jewelry. Metals have been so important that the names Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age have been applied to epochs of history. Metals have an enduring quality. They are solid, durable, and attractive. The first draft of this passage is being written with a pen made of sterling silver (an alloy consisting of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper). The lure of metals has drawn adventurers to remote places, and they have been the spoils of war. Their intrinsic value is exemplified by the ornaments we wear and the role of metals in monetary systems. 

It is known that zinc and cooper play an important role in immune system functioning (Kelley et al., 1995 Skalny and Rudakov, 2004 Zinc, 2001). Deficiency of these metals causes immune system dysfunctions. Recently these dysfunctions are seen to be widely distributed, especially in children. It is known also that sensitivity of the immune system to external influences differs in different age periods and it was found (Evstafyeva et al., 2002) that the influence of toxic metals is more significant in 7-11-year-old urbanized children. At the same time zinc and cooper deficiency was found in 1-6-year-old children, zinc deficiency and copper lowered contents, in... 

Stos-Gale, Z.A. and Gale, N.H. (1990). The role of Thera in the Bronze Age trade in metals. In Thera and the Aegean World III. Volume 1 Archaeology, ed. Hardy, D.A., Thera Foundation, London, pp. 72-92. 

Free radicals, notably the superoxide radical, are by-products of the cellular metabolism and transition-metal ions seem to play a role in causing DNA damage in vivo. This may lead to mutations and eventually to cancer, and some of the phenomena of aging have also been attributed to free-radical-induced DNA damage. We are still far from understanding these reactions in sufficient detail, but the reader will find chapters on peroxyl radical chemistry and on some aspects of the involvement of transition-metal ions in free-radical reactions on which future work may be based. 

The pathways for hexose and pentose are differentiated mainly through the relative chemical stability of the homologues, glucosepane and pentosinane. The former is a proper AGE under physiological conditions, but the latter is smoothly oxidised to an intermediate, which is subsequently dehydrated to the advanced glycoxidation product, pentosidine. At this stage, it is not known whether oxidation or dehydration is rate determining the role of metal ions needs to be clarified as well. 

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