1.
Magnesium Levels in Drinking Water and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analysis.
Jiang, L, He, P, Chen, J, Liu, Y, Liu, D, Qin, G, Tan, N
Nutrients. 2016;(1)
Abstract
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated inconsistent associations between drinking water magnesium levels and risk of mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD); thus, a meta-analysis was performed to assess the association between them. Relevant studies were searched by the databases of Cochrane, EMBASE, PubMed and Web of Knowledge. Pooled relative risks (RR) with their 95% CI were calculated to assess this association using a random-effects model. Finally, nine articles with 10 studies involving 77,821 CHD cases were used in this study. Our results revealed an inverse association between drinking water magnesium level and CHD mortality (RR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.79-0.99, I² = 70.6). Nine of the 10 studies came from Europe, and the association was significant between drinking water magnesium level and the risk of CHD mortality (RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.69-0.98). In conclusion, drinking water magnesium level was significantly inversely associated with CHD mortality.
2.
An update on magnesium homeostasis mechanisms in plants.
Hermans, C, Conn, SJ, Chen, J, Xiao, Q, Verbruggen, N
Metallomics : integrated biometal science. 2013;(9):1170-83
Abstract
Worldwide, nearly two-thirds of the population do not consume the recommended amount of magnesium (Mg) in their diet. Furthermore, low Mg status (hypomagnesaemia) is known to contribute to a number of human chronic disease conditions. Because the principal dietary Mg source is of plant origin, agronomic and genetic biofortification strategies are aimed at improving nutritional Mg content in food crops to overcome this mineral deficiency in humans. This update incorporates the contributions of annotated permeases involved in Mg uptake, storage and recycling with a schematic model of Mg movement at the organ and cellular levels in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana. Furthermore, approaches using mutagenesis or natural ionomic variation to identify loci involved in Mg homeostasis in roots, leaves and seeds will be summarised. A brief overview will be presented on how Arabidopsis research can help to develop strategies for biofortification of crops.