Effect of selenium depletion and repletion on plasma glutathione and glutathione-dependent enzymes in the rat.

Selenium deficiency has several known biochemical effects. In the rat, these effects include loss of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, increased plasma glutathione concentration and increased liver glutathione S-transferase (GSH S-Tr) activity. The time course of the development of these changes in rats fed selenium-deficient diets and the time course of reversal of these changes in selenium-deficient rats fed graded levels of selenium were determined. As selenium deficiency was produced, liver cytosolic and plasma GSH-Px activities decreased first and were less than 5% of control when plasma glutathione concentration and liver GSH S-Tr activity began to increase. Elevated liver GSH S-Tr activity in selenium-deficient rats was corrected by refeeding selenium at the lowest level of supplementation (0.015 ppm) for 4 wk. GSH-Px activity required a supplementation of 0.10 ppm selenium for correction to control levels in 4 wk. Based on these studies a classification of the severity of selenium deficiency into mild, moderate and severe categories is proposed. In addition, the effect of dietary sulfur amino acid supplementation on plasma glutathione concentration was studied.