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Copper Metabolism in Man

  • S. J. Adelstein, M.D.,
  • and B. L. Vallee, M.D.

This article has no abstract; the first 100 words appear below.

THE element copper is ubiquitously distributed on the earth's surface. Its tin alloy, bronze, has been in use for four thousand years, and the salts of the metal were employed in the therapy of eye disease in Babylon, Assyria and Egypt.1 Copper was identified in plant2 , 3 and animal4 material a hundred and forty years ago and was considered a contaminant. It is only in this century that it has been recognized as an essential constituent of all living things and that derangements in copper metabolism have been recognized in human and animal diseases.Distribution of Copper in the BodyCopper . . .

Funding and Disclosures

* From the Biophysics Research Laboratory, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and the departments of Anatomy, Medicine and Radiology, Harvard Medical School.

Author Affiliations

BOSTON

† Philip H. Cook Foundation fellow in radiology and research fellow in anatomy, Harvard Medical School; junior associate in medicine and radiology, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital; research fellow of the Medical Foundation, Incorporated.

‡ Associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School; physician, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital; research associate in biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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