Comparison of the Patients Suffering from Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis with Healthy Individuals regarding Serum Selenium and Zinc Levels

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that causes demyelination and axonal damage. There are contradictory results regarding the effects of zinc and selenium on the prevention or reduction of multiple sclerosis symptoms. This study aimed to compare selenium and serum zinc levels of the patients suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with those of healthy individuals.

This case-control study compared 30 patients suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (case) with 30 healthy individuals (control)  regarding serum zinc and selenium levels. The cases and controls were matched in terms of age, gender, and smoking history using frequency matching methods. The data were analyzed using STATA software (version 15). A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The mean ages of the patients in the case and control groups were 34.0±5.1 and 33.8±4.9 years (P=0.439), respectively. Moreover, the results revealed that the serum zinc and serum selenium levels were 110.86±21.32 and 83.60±10.71 micrograms/dl (P<0.001) as well as 78.58±17.75 and 85.61±24.18 micrograms/dl (P=0.102) in the case and control groups, respectively. Furthermore, disease duration and severity had a positive correlation with serum selenium level; however, it was not significant. On the other hand, serum zinc level was negatively correlated with disease duration and severity although it was not statistically significant.

Zinc deficiency seems to play a role in the pathogenicity of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; however, it does not correlate with the disease severity and duration. Considering the low levels of serum selenium in patients with multiple sclerosis, this difference was not statistically significant and may have been affected by the sample size.