BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1593821
Association of plasma concentration of trace metals with frontotemporal degeneration
Provisionally accepted
Kelly Delano1
Alex C Sprague1
Roman Jandarov1
Brian P Jackson2
Rhonna Shatz1
Scott M Langevin3
Russell P Sawyer1*- 1University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, United States
- 2Dartmouth University, Hanover, Indiana, United States
- 3University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States
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Objective: Compare the burden of heavy metals in plasma from people with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) and healthy controls.A cross-sectional study of 14 FTD cases and 28 healthy controls recruited from the University of Cincinnati. Plasma samples were sent to the Trace Element Analysis Core at Dartmouth College for assessment of 24 metals or metalloids via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Unconditional logistic regression models were performed with adjustments for age (centered at the median) and sex.Results: After adjusting for age and sex, there was a significant positive association of FTD with the highest tertile of Manganese (ORadjusted = 11.1, 95% CI: 1.57-132) and Chromium (ORadjusted = 9.86, 95% CI: 1.24-218). There was significant inverse associations observed between FTD and the highest tertile of Barium (ORadjusted = 0.06, 95% CI: <0.01-0.47) and Mercury (ORadjusted = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.01-0.74), with a significant inverse trend (ptrend = 0.03).Conclusions: Significant associations between plasma concentration of several trace metals and FTD. The significantly elevated levels of Manganese and Chromium may suggest a role of environmental exposure in the pathogenesis of FTD. However, larger, well-designed prospective studies, along with complementary experimental work, are needed to better elucidate this relationship.
Keywords: FTD, Dementia, neurodegenerative, Manganese, Chromium, inductively-coupled plasma mass-spectrometry
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Delano, Sprague, Jandarov, Jackson, Shatz, Langevin and Sawyer. 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: Russell P Sawyer, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, United States
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