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Effect of Chemical Form of Selenium on Tissue Glutathione Peroxidase Activity in Developing Rats^1,2,3,

Helen W. Lane^*,, Ralph Strength^**, Janet Johnson^* and Marguerite White^*

^{* **} Departments of Nutrition and Foods and Animal and Dairy Sciences, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Aubum University, Aubum University, AL 36849 Biomedical Operations and Research Branch, NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of various forms of selenium (Se) on the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) in liver, heart, kidney and eyes of the developing rat. In experiment 1, throughout mating, pregnancy and lactation, female rats consumed one of three diets: basal (< 0.05 µg Se/g); selenite (0.15 µg Se/g) and selenomethionine (0.15 µg Se/g). Some pups born to dams in the basal group were also given intraperitoneal doses of saline, selenite or selenomethionine. GSHPx activity was measured in tissues from fetuses, 7-d-old and 14-d-old nursing pups and the dams. In all tissues studied, GSHPx activity was highest in the 14-d-old pups whose mothers were in the selenomethionine group. Rat pups given intraperitoneal selenite (3 µg/kg body weight) had higher liver and kidney GSHPx activity than pups given the same amount of selenium as intraperitoneal selenomethionine. In experiment 2, all dams were fed the same basal diet, and pups were weaned to diets containing one of two levels of selenium (0.1 or 0.2 µg/g), one of three forms of selenium (selenite, selenomethionine or selenocystine) or no added selenium. After 14 d of repletion, the highest level of hepatic GSHPx activity occurred in the selenite group and the lowest in the basal diet group. After 21 d of repletion, renal GSHPx activity was lowest in the basal group followed by the selenocystine group. The highest tissue selenium concentration was found in kidney tissues of the selenocystine group. These data support the hypothesis that these dietary forms of selenium are differentially available for GSHPx activity.

KEY WORDS: • selenomethionine • selenocystine • selenite • rats • glutathione peroxidase

¹ Portions of this work were presented at the 1986 and 1987 meetings of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology [Barron, S. P., Hittner, H. M., Strength, D. R., Kretzer, P. & Lanc, H. W. (1986) Effect of selenium supplementation on level of glutathione-peroxidase activity in nursing rats. Fed. Proc. 45(3):372, and Johnson, J., Strength, D. R. & Lane, H. W. (1987) Availability of selenite, selenomethionine and selenocystine for glutathione-peroxidase activity in selenium-depleted rat pups. Fed. Proc. 46(3):908].

² Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station Journal number 10-892130p.

³ Research partially supported by a grant from the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Manuscript received 3 October 1989. Revision accepted 31 July 1990.