Selenium is a trace mineral and an essential nutrient in the human diet. Selenium is found in soil and water and consequently enters the food chain through the root ways of plants and aquatic organisms. Some areas of the world are low in soil selenium resulting in a selenium deficient population and the appearance of an associated heart disease and bone disorders that can be corrected with diet...

A deficiency of dietary selenium leads to immotile, deformed sperm and infertility in rats, whereas supplementation of the diet with selenium compounds has been associated with both beneficial and deleterious effects on sperm function, depending on the chemical form of selenium. We conducted a randomized, controlled, and blinded intervention study on the effects of selenium in food on semen qua...

BACKGROUND Selenium is an essential micronutrient with a recommended dietary allowance for adults of 55 mug/d. It functions as an essential constituent of selenoproteins. Although there is no evidence of selenium deficiency in the United States, people in many other areas of the world are selenium deficient, with the consequence that they are unable to express their selenoproteins fully. OBJE...

Selenophosphate, an activated form of selenium that can serve as a selenium donor, is generated by the selD gene product, selenophosphate synthetase (SPS). Selenophosphate is required by several bacteria and by mammals for the specific synthesis of Secys-tRNA, the precursor of selenocysteine in selenoenzymes. Although free selenide can be used in vitro for synthesis of selenophosphate, the phys...

This article presents a seven-step procedure for developing environmentally safe total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for selenium. The need for this information stems from recent actions taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that may require TMDLs for selenium and other contaminants that are impairing water bodies. However, there is no technical guidance from EPA or elsewhere th...

Low selenium status draws much attention because of the possible involvement in the etiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Hyperlipidmia or dyslipidemia, a very important risk factor for CVD, occurs frequently in middle-aged Koreans. While selenium deficiency is supposed to aggravate blood lipid profiles, it has been shown that selenium status diminishes with advanced age. However, little is...

BACKGROUND To understand the effect of selenium intake on health, it is important to identify sensitive and population-specific biomarkers of selenium status. OBJECTIVE The objective of this systematic review was to assess the usefulness of biomarkers of selenium status in humans. DESIGN The methods included a structured search strategy on Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE (Ovid), and Cochrane databases...

Selenium is a naturally occurring substance that is toxic at high concentrations but is also a nutritionally essential element. Hydrogen selenide is the most acutely toxic selenium compound. Acute (short-term) exposure to elemental selenium, hydrogen selenide, and selenium dioxide by inhalation results primarily in respiratory effects, such as irritation of the mucous membranes, pulmonary edema...

Sprouts of several plants (10 families and 28 species) were cultivated in a high selenium environment, and the chemical species of selenium in these selenium-enriched sprouts were identified by using high-performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICPMS). Cultivation of sprouts of kaiware daikon (type of radish) with 5.0 microg/ml or 10.0 microg/ml of s...