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Fatty Acid and Glucose Metabolism in Selenium Deficient Rats and Lambs¹

Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Fatty acid analyses were done on tissues of lambs from ewes fed purified diets, and injected with selenium and/or vitamin E in a 2 x 2 factorial treatment. The concentrations of arachidonic acid averaged 9.3% of the total fatty acid content in semitendinosus muscle from lambs given vitamin E and selenium, but averaged 19.4% in this muscle from lambs given vitamin E without selenium. Arachidonic acid comprised 28.3% and 33.7%, respectively, of the total fatty acids in livers from selenium supplemented and deficient rats. Twice as much radioactivity from [1-¹⁴C]acetate was recovered in rat liver phospholipid arachidonate in selenium deficient rats as in selenium supplemented ones, indicating a greater turnover rate of this fatty acid in deficient rats. Fifty-five percent of dosed ¹⁴C-glucose (either [1-¹⁴C] or [6-¹⁴C]glucose) was recovered within 3 hours as ¹⁴CO₂ from selenium deficient rats. This recovery dropped to one-half this value when these rats were fed a diet containing 0.1 ppm selenium for only 7 days. This increased glucose metabolism is suggestive of a greater metabolic rate in selenium deficient animals, which may be responsible for the differences observed in tissue fatty acid composition.

KEY WORDS: • selenium deficiency • tissue fatty acid composition • glucose metabolism • rats and lambs • vitamin E

¹ Published with the approval of the Oregon State Agricultural Experiment Station as Technical Paper No. 4084. This research was supported by Public Health Service Research Grant No. NS 07413 from the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke.

² This communication is part of a thesis submitted by the senior author to the Graduate Faculty of Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. Present address: Ciba-Geigy Coproation, P.O. Box 11422, Greensboro, N.C. 27409.

Manuscript received 1 November 1976.