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Correlation between the Size of the Selenite-Exchangeable Metabolic Pool and Total Body or Liver Selenium in Rats¹

Clinical Nutrition Research Center, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637

This study explored the quantitative relationship between the size of the selenite-exchangeable metabolic pool (W_Se-EMP) and total body or liver Se in rats of varying age and past Se intake. We performed four experiments. In one, weanling rats were fed either a Se-deficient or Se-supplemented diet for 30 d, followed by measurement of W_Se-EMP and total body Se. For the other experiments, rats were fed natural sources of Se without added selenite until adult age and then either subjected to acute Se restriction during the 7 d of measurements or maintained on a Se-sufficient diet. For the animals fed the selenite diet, the 7-d average ratio of W_Se-EMP:total body Se (Se_end,0) was 0.370 ± 0.009, which was not significantly different from the corresponding value (0.350 ± 0.018, P > 0.05) for the Se-deficient group. When the group mean values of W_Se-EMP were correlated with the corresponding mean values of Se_end,0 for all experiments, we obtained highly linear relations (r² > 0.96). When W_Se-EMP for each animal was correlated with the corresponding value of total body endogenous Se (Se_end) or liver Se_end (for t = 1 or 7 d), we found equally strong linear relations (r² 0.99). We concluded that W_Se-EMP accurately reflected total body Se content or the Se content of such organs as liver, regardless of past Se intake, chemical form of Se or age and size of the animals.

KEY WORDS: • selenium • stable isotopes • selenite-exchangeable metabolic pool • rats • selenium status

¹ This work was supported by the Public Health Service grants CA-38943 and DK-26678.

Manuscript received 16 January 1990. Revision accepted 8 August 1990.