Organic selenium compounds have been documented to play a role in cancer prevention. Our previous study showed that selenomethionine (SeMet) induces p53 activation without genotoxic effects including apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which organic selenium compounds promote p53-mediated base excision repair (BER) activity. Our data demonstrated for...

A field investigation conducted by the South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory suggested that subclinical selenium toxicosis in pregnant cows may have contributed to an outbreak of aborted/stillborn calves in a high-selenium region of South Dakota. This study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between abortion and subclinical selenium toxicosis in the dam and to ...

Sakr and colleagues report seemingly disappointing data on the effects of selenium in severe sepsis [1]. Mortality rates remained unaffected despite intensive selenium supplementation. The authors conclude that extra selenium above a basal supply of 100 μg/day provides no additional health benefit. However, there are good reasons for selenium supplementation in sepsis; the selenium status decli...

The aging of a nanocrystalline equiatomic ZnSe alloy produced by mechanical alloying was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The measured XRD patterns showed that Se atoms located at interfacial component migrated with aging giving raise to a crystalline selenium (c-Se) phase. DSC spectra of heat-treated samples at temperatures abov...

Selenium (Se) in irrigation drainage water became a major concern after it was implicated in deaths and deformities of waterfowl at Kesterson Reservoir (Presser and Ohlendorf 1987; Ohlendorf 1989). Subsequently, other areas with irrigationinduced Se problems (or potential problems) have been identified in several western U.S. states (Seiler 1995), reinforcing the status of Se as a U.S. Environm...

The chemical form and bioavailability of dietary selenium may influence its protectiveness against colorectal cancer. Selenium is readily incorporated into milk proteins by feeding cows with selenized-yeast. This study examined whether a dairy source of organic selenium (as milk proteins) is more effective than a yeast source at inhibiting oncogenesis in carcinogen-treated mice and whether it r...

2014 The photoconductivity of amorphous selenium varies linearly with light intensity. This result cannot be interpreted by the classical mechanism of electron-hole pair generation followed by recombination through gap states. We assume that the incident photons create photoinduced defects whose structure is IVAP-like. The optical or thermal excitation of those defects yields the photoconductiv...

Techniques are described for growing single crystals ofthe transition metal dichalcogenide compounds Nb1 — ~Ta~Se2(0 ~ x ~ 0.20). Both iodine and selenium vapor transport have been used. A portion of the phase diagram has been determined, in order to produce the desired 2H polymorpoh for all compositions of interest. Measurement of the superconducting transition temperature is shown to be a use...

Next year (2017), the micronutrient Selenium (Se) is celebrating its birthday-i.e., 200 years after first being identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius. Despite its impressive age, research into the functions of this essential trace element is very alive and reaching out for new horizons. This special issue presents some recent fascinating, exciting, and promising developments in...