Physiological and Pathological Variations of Copper Metabolism

From the foregoing considerations it is obvious that, in spite of considerable effort on the part of many investigators, the basic processes and mechanisms whereby copper is absorbed, transported, stored, built into body 

The high tissue copper levels of the newborn decrease soon after birth. In three infants between 3 and 12 months of age Nusbaum et al. (N7) found the copper content of the liver and kidney to be within the normal adult range. On the other hand, Gerlach (Gl) found high liver copper content in some infants up to 1 year of age. In children between 7 and 13 years of age the tissue copper concentrations were not different from those in adults (Gl, S9). 

Changes op Human Serum Copper and Ceruloplasmin Levels with Age 

Cartwright and Wintrobe (C2) reported significantly higher levels of both serum copper and ceruloplasmin in normal adult females compared to males. Cox et al. (C13) in a somewhat smaller series could not confirm this. In the latter series there was no significant difference between the serum copper and ceruloplasmin content of males and females either in children or in adults. 

The copper content of the tissues and blood of animals is markedly dependent on the dietary intake (U2). This has not yet been reported in man. Premature infants could not be made copper deficient by being put on a diet containing very little copper (W13). This, however, may be explained by the presence of large copper depots in this age group (see Section 5.1). The presence of increased amounts of copper in drinking water derived from copper pipes has been shown not to influence the copper content of the liver in man (M2). 

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