The Copper, Ceruloplasmin & Zinc profiles provides useful information and is an excellent way to determine immune status and the nutritional intake and/or absorption of zinc and copper.Zinc is an essential marker for the proper functioning of the immune system. Zinc is required for the activity of over 300 enzymes and is involved in most major metabolic pathways. Either a deficiency or excess in this marker can affect the human body significantly causing a wide variety of symptoms.The immune system depends on zinc in almost every aspect. Zinc has an inverse relationship with copper in the body. This means that as zinc goes down, copper goes up and the same principle applies vice versa.Adequate copper levels are essential for the growth of new blood vessels, wound healing, and recovering from heart attacks and strokes. When levels are only slightly above normal physiological amounts, copper can be toxic. Any mild abnormality or impairment of liver function can lead to copper excess.Ceruloplasmin is an important marker often ordered in conjunction with copper. Caeruloplasmin is a copper-containing enzyme that plays a role in the body’s iron metabolism. The liver binds copper to apocaeruloplasmin to produce caeruloplasmin and then releases it into the bloodstream. About 95 per cent of the copper in the blood is bound to caeruloplasmin.

References:

Scheiber I, Dringen R, Mercer JF. Copper: effects of deficiency and overload. Met Ions Life Sci. 2013;13:359-387. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7500-8_11

Balsano C, Porcu C, Sideri S. Is copper a new target to counteract the progression of chronic diseases?. Metallomics. 2018;10(12):1712-1722. doi:10.1039/c8mt00219c