NTNU: Detecting trace metals using hair

Development opportunity

A researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has developed a diagnostic that uses hair to test for trace metals and other elements in the body, and says the technique could be used in place of blood tests.  

Trace metals such as iron, zinc, copper, nickel, mercury, manganese or molybdenum found in the body in extremely small amounts serve a variety of functions, and are consumed through food and drink.

Currently measuring trace metals requires a blood test, but now Kristin Gellein, a PhD student at NTNU, has developed a new and better analytical method that requires just one centimetre. From this it is possible to sift out and quantify up to 30 different trace metals.

The substances found in hair mirror the substances found in the blood. And because hair grows at a rate of about a centimetre per month, it is possible to conduct a retrospective blood analysis by testing hair centimetre by centimetre. A single strand of hair thus becomes a kind of time machine, for tracking trace metal exposure back in time.

This measurement technique is relevant to in work-related health and safety monitoring and forensic medicine, and also has potential in helping to make the connection between environment and illness, according to Tore Syversen, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at NTNU’s Faculty of Medicine, and one of the project’s coordinators. Neurologists have long suspected that there might be a connection between trace metals and neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosisand Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

It is known that patients with these diseases can have high variations in the levels of trace metals in their bodies, but the significance is of this in terms of illness is unclear. A central question is whether patients become sick because their bodies concentrate metals at levels that are higher than normal, or whether it is the illness itself that causes the body to be unable to handle trace metals in a normal way. The hair analysis method may be an important tool in furthering this area of research.

“We can measure many trace elements at the same time, and at extremely low levels. Because many trace elements are mutually dependent upon each other, this kind of multi-element analysis is a much better tool than what we have had in the past,” Syversen says.