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Clinical Studies
References
Molybdenum is found in practically all plant and animal tissues. It is a co-factor in the detoxification processes, iron metabolism and the final stages of urine production and it also helps promote normal cell function.
Molybdenum may be beneficial in the treatment or prevention of cancer, and also may be beneficial in Wilson's disease and anemia. Deficiency may play a role in dizziness, ankylosing spondylitis, cancer, insufficient uric acid levels and elevated triglycerides.
Published Clinical Studiesclin
[An insufficiency of essential trace elements and its manifestations in pathology]1
Avtsyn AP.
There exist 11 essential elements (iron, copper, iodine, zinc, chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, manganese, nickel, selenium and fluorine) vitally important for human health. The deficiency of these trace elements results in many pathological processes, including such world-wide human diseases, as iron-deficient anemias and other forms of hyposiderosis, endemic hypothyroid goiter, endemic fluorine deficiency states, particularly manifested by dental caries in children and osteoporosis of the advanced age. Selenium deficiency causes endemic cardiopathy in China, is a risk factor for the development and severe course of congestive cardiopathies, as well as myocardial infarction in a number of European countries. Correction of selenium deficiency with sodium selenite reduced to the minimum the mortality rate from endemic cardiopathy in China (Keshan disease) and had a favourable effect on other forms of cardiovascular pathology. Essential trace element deficiency results in many forms of embryonal and fetal pathology and decreases the antitumour resistance in man. New essential trace elements are still being identified and their number reached 19 at present. Development of pathological anatomy of essential trace element deficiency is an important task of modern medicine.
Publication Types:
PMID: 2196034 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
New essential trace elements for the life sciences.2
Nielsen FH.
US Department of Agriculture, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, ND 58202.
The possible importance of some new essential trace elements in nutrition is discussed. Most likely, insufficient intake of a specific trace element becomes obvious only when the body is stressed in some way that enhances the need for that element; this has been supported by recent findings with selenium. The trace elements boron and copper may be of nutritional significance in a manner similar to selenium. When the diets of animals and humans are manipulated to cause possible changes in cellular integrity or in hormone responsiveness, a large number of responses to dietary boron occur. The findings indicate that boron is important for optimal calcium and, thus, bone metabolism. High dietary cystine and fructose exacerbate the signs of copper deficiency in rats; this indicates that the response to copper deficiency by humans would vary with the amino acid and carbohydrate composition of the diet. There is some evidence that chromium, molybdenum, nickel, arsenic, and vanadium may also be of nutritional significance under stress conditions. In other words, an increasing number of studies have been performed that have examined the importance of trace element nutriture in various forms of nutritional, metabolic, hormonal, or physiologic stress in animals and humans. These studies indicate that situations will be found in which a trace element is of nutritional significance. It is likely that some of the trace elements are more important in human nutrition than is now generally acknowledged.
PMID: 1704767 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
[The nutritional importance and physiopathology of molybdenum in man]3
Neve J.
Institut de Pharmacie, Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
Molybdenum is an essential trace element taking part in the active site of three human enzymes: xanthine oxidase, aldehyde oxidase and sulfite oxidase, playing a role in the detoxification of the organism and/or the production of important intermediary products. The perturbation of the first two enzymes has no established clinical consequence, but a decrease in activity of the third one is harmful for the organism, particularly the nervous system during pre- or post-natal development. The anomalies in the function of these enzymes are generally inherited and linked to the impaired production of the molybdenum cofactor, an organic molecule complexed to the element in the active site. However, several pathological cases in animals and one case in man have been clearly attributed to molybdenum deficiency. It is the reason why molybdenum supplementation has been recommended in long term total parenteral nutrition in infants and adults.
Publication Types:
PMID: 1757880 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
The Linxian cataract studies. Two nutrition intervention trials.4
Sperduto RD, Hu TS, Milton RC, Zhao JL, Everett DF, Cheng QF, Blot WJ, Bing L, Taylor PR, Li JY, et al.
National Eye Institute, Bethesda, Md.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the vitamin/mineral supplements used in two cancer intervention trials affected the risk of developing age-related cataracts. DESIGN: Two randomized, double-masked trials with a duration of 5 to 6 years and end-of-trial eye examinations. SETTING: Rural communes in Linxian, China. PARTICIPANTS: In trial 1, 2141 participants aged 45 to 74 years, and, in trial 2, 3249 participants aged 45 to 74 years. INTERVENTIONS: Multivitamin/mineral supplement or matching placebo in trial 1; factorial design to test the effect of four different vitamin/mineral combinations in trial 2 (retinol/zinc, riboflavin/niacin, ascorbic acid/molybdenum, and selenium/alpha-tocopherol/beta carotene). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of nuclear, cortical, and posterior subcapsular cataracts in treatment groups at end of trials. RESULTS: In the first trial, there was a statistically significant 36% reduction in the prevalence of nuclear cataract for persons aged 65 to 74 years who received the supplements. In the second trial, the prevalence of nuclear cataract was significantly lower in persons receiving riboflavin/niacin compared with persons not receiving these vitamins. Again, persons in the oldest group, 65 to 74 years, benefited the most (44% reduction in prevalence). No treatment effect was noted for cortical cataract in either trial. Although the number of posterior subcapsular cataracts was very small, there was a statistically significant deleterious effect of treatment with riboflavin/niacin. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from the two trials suggest that vitamin/mineral supplements may decrease the risk of nuclear cataract. Additional research is needed in less nutritionally deprived populations before these findings can be translated into general nutritional recommendations.
Publication Types:
PMID: 8363468 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Molybdenum absorption, excretion, and retention studied with stable isotopes in young men during depletion and repletion.
Turnlund JR, Keyes WR, Peiffer GL, Chiang G.
USDA/ARS/Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Presidio of San Francisco, CA, 94129, USA.
A study of molybdenum absorption, excretion, and balance was conducted in four young men fed a low-molybdenum diet (22 micrograms/d) for 102 d followed by 18 d of the same diet supplemented to contain 467 micrograms/d. The study was conducted to determine the minimum dietary molybdenum requirement of healthy young men. Stable isotopes of molybdenum were used as tracers. 100Mo was fed four times during the study, 97Mo was infused twice, and 94Mo was used as an isotopic diluent to quantify the molybdenum isotopes and total molybdenum in complete urine and fecal collections and in the diets. The study demonstrated that subjects could not consistently attain balance with the low-molybdenum diet, but balance improved with time, and no signs of molybdenum deficiency were observed. Molybdenum was very efficiently absorbed at both intakes of dietary molybdenum and urinary excretion increased as dietary molybdenum increased. Molybdenum turnover was significantly slower when dietary molybdenum was low. We estimate from these results that the minimum dietary molybdenum requirement is approximately 25 micrograms/d or possibly less. This suggests that the lower end of the recommended range could be less than the current recommended amount of 75 micrograms/d.
Publication Types:
PMID: 7733035 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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