Spleen containing copper

Human foods that are particularly rich in copper (20 to 400 mg Cu/kg) include oysters, crustaceans, beef and lamb livers, nuts, dried legumes, dried vine and stone fruits, and cocoa (USEPA 1980). In humans, copper is present in every tissue analyzed (Schroeder et al. 1966). A 70-kg human male usually contains 70 to 120 mg of copper (USEPA 1980). The brain cortex usually contains 18% of the total copper, liver 15%, muscle 33%, and the remainder in other tissues — especially the iris and choroid of the eye. Brain gray matter (cortex) has significantly more copper than white matter (cerebellum) copper tends to increase with increasing age in both cortex and cerebellum. In newborns, liver and spleen contain about 50% of the total body burden of copper (USEPA 1980). Liver copper concentrations were usually elevated in people from areas with soft water (Schroeder et al. 1966). Elevated copper concentrations in human livers are also associated with hepatic disease, tuberculosis, hypertension, pneumonia, senile dementia, rheumatic heart disease, and certain types of cancer (Schroeder et al. 1966). 

The copper content of the normal human adult is 50-120 mg. Copper is distributed throughout the body. The liver, brain, heart, and kidney contain the highest concentrations of copper. Intermediate copper concentrations are found in lung, intestine, and spleen. Hepatic copper accounts for about 10% of the total. The copper levels of blood are around 100 p.g/100 mL. Red blood cells contain a small concentration of copper. Bile contains variable amounts of copper since it is the main route of excretion. 

The adult human body contains from 1.4-3.0g zinc, which is about a third to half the iron content, approximately 1-15 times the copper content and about 100 times the amont of manganese. Roughly half of the total zinc present is contained in muscles and about a third in the bones. High concentrations of zinc are found mainly in skin, hair, nails, eye, liver, kidney, spleen and male genital organs. In the cells of the liver, kidney and some other internal organs, zinc is bound in metallothionein. 

Iron from the fragments of red cells is stored in the spleen, liver, and bone marrow (reticuloendothelial system). Recycling of this iron requires the action of a copper-containing enzyme. 

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