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Updated: Jan 4, 2026

Noninvasive Sampling of Mucosal Lining Fluid for the Quantification of In Vivo Upper Airway Immune-mediator Levels
Published on: August 7, 2017
Lower circulating zinc and selenium levels are associated with an increased risk of asthma: evidence from a
Meng Chen1, Yongye Sun2, Yili Wu1
1Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Public Health College, Qingdao University, No. 38 Deng Zhou Street, Qingdao, Shandong266021, People's Republic of China.
Objective:
Previous studies evaluating the associations of circulating Zn and Se levels with asthma have produced inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to summarize and quantitatively synthesize the evidence from observational research.
Design:
Meta-analysis.
Setting:
We searched PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases up to May 2019 for relevant available articles. Random-effects model was adopted to estimate the pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95 % CI. Meta-regression analysis and 'leave-one-out' sensitivity analysis were used to assess heterogeneity.
Participants:
The meta-analysis focused on general populations.
Results:
A total of twenty-six studies for Zn and forty studies for Se were included in the meta-analysis. The overall analyses identified that asthma patients had lower Zn (SMD = -0·40; 95 % CI -0·77, -0·03; I2 = 94·1 %) and Se (SMD = -0·32; 95 % CI -0·48, -0·17; I2 = 90·9 %) levels in serum or plasma compared with healthy controls. After removing the studies that contributed to the heterogeneity, the pooled SMD were -0·26 (95 % CI -0·40, -0·13; I2 = 37·42 %) for Zn and -0·06 (95 % CI -0·13, 0·02; I2 = 43·54 %) for Se.
Conclusions:
Lower circulating Zn and Se levels might be associated with an increased risk of asthma.
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