REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1584084
This article is part of the Research TopicHighlights in Diabetes NephropathyView all 22 articles
Research Progress of Copper in Diabetes and Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Narrative Review
Provisionally accepted
Zong-Heng Wu1
Su-Mei Li2*- 1School of Clinical Medicine, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
- 2The First Hospital of Putian City, Putian, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Copper is a trace element necessary for the normal growth and development of the human body and is involved in a wide range of physiological processes. However, copper has a dual role in the body: copper deficiency impairs the function of copper-binding antioxidant enzymes, while copper excess can lead to cell damage and even cell death by promoting oxidative stress. Studies have shown that there is a link between copper levels and diabetes, which has been implicated in glucose metabolism and the progression of diabetic complications through a variety of mechanisms. Diabetic kidney disease (DKD), a serious complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), lacks effective prevention and treatment. As a result, the relationship between copper and DKD is beginning to attract the attention of researchers. However, inconsistencies in the results of studies to date suggest that the mechanisms underlying the relationship between copper and diabetes may be more complex. This review summarizes the relevant research progress on the relationship between copper and DM and DKD, with the aim of providing new perspectives and references for research in related fields.
Keywords: Copper, Blood copper, Urinary copper, diabetes, Diabetic kidney disease
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Su-Mei Li, sumeili0209@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.