Trace element profile and incidence of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer: results from the EPIC-Potsdam cohort study

Purpose We aimed to examine the prospective association between manganese, iron, copper, zinc, iodine, selenium, selenoprotein P, free zinc, and their interplay, with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease (CVD) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods Serum trace element (TE) concentrations were measured in a case-cohort study embedded within the EPIC-Potsdam cohort, consisting of a random sub-cohort ( n = 2500) and incident cases of T2D ( n = 705), CVD ( n = 414), and CRC ( n = 219). TE patterns were investigated using principal component analysis. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted to examine the association between TEs with T2D, CVD and CRC incidence. Results Higher manganese, zinc, iodine and selenium were associated with an increased risk of developing T2D (HR Q5 vs Q1: 1.56, 1.09–2.22; HR per SD, 95% CI 1.18, 1.05–1.33; 1.09, 1.01–1.17; 1.19, 1.06–1.34, respectively). Regarding CVD, manganese, copper and copper-to-zinc ratio were associated with an increased risk (HR per SD, 95% CI 1.13, 1.00–1.29; 1.22, 1.02–1.44; 1.18, 1.02–1.37, respectively). The opposite was observed for higher selenium-to-copper ratio (HR Q5 vs Q1, 95% CI 0.60, 0.39–0.93). Higher copper and zinc were associated with increasing risk of developing CRC (HR per SD, 95% CI 1.29, 1.05–1.59 and 1.14, 1.00–1.30, respectively). Selenium, selenoprotein P and selenium-to-copper-ratio were associated to decreased risk (HR per SD, 95% CI 0.82, 0.69–0.98; 0.81, 0.72–0.93; 0.77, 0.65–0.92, respectively). Two TE patterns were identified: manganese–iron–zinc and copper–iodine–selenium. Conclusion Different TEs were associated with the risk of developing T2D, CVD and CRC. The contrasting associations found for selenium with T2D and CRC point towards differential disease-related pathways.