OBJECTIVE Lead is a common environmental contaminant. Lead accumulation in the body is especially dangerous for pregnant women and newborns. Selenium is a trace element which may rectify the damaging effects of lead. Here we tested potential protective effects of selenium against gestational lead exposure. MATERIALS AND METHODS Pregnant SD rats were exposed to 200 mg/L of lead acetate (given ...

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of selenium supplementation on dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced mammary tumorigenesis in female Sprague-Dawley rats fed either a 5 or 25% corn oil diet, denoted as low fat (LF) or high fat (HF), respectively. Selenium supplementation of LF and HF diets were begun at 21 days of age. In Experiment 1, rats (50 days of age) were given 5 mg o...

BACKGROUND Selenium is known to be important to the brain. Three small, published studies have suggested an effect of selenium supplementation or deprivation on mood in healthy volunteers. We investigated these findings on a much larger scale. METHODS In this double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention, 501 UK participants aged 60-74 were randomly allocated to receive 100, 200 or 300 microg...

Background: Studies have shown that zinc and selenium deficiency is common in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the effects of zinc and selenium co-supplementation before and/or after disease progression on NAFLD are not clear enough. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of zinc and selenium co-supplementation before and/or after disease progression on NAFLD prognos...

BACKGROUND Kashin-Beck disease is an osteoarthropathy endemic in selenium- and iodine-deficient areas around Lhasa, Tibet. OBJECTIVE We assessed the efficacy of selenium supplementation on disease progression. DESIGN A double-blind, randomized controlled trial of selenium supplementation was carried out in 324 children aged 5-15 y who had Kashin-Beck disease. Two hundred eighty children rec...

Selenium is an essential trace element of importance to human biology and health. Increasing evidence suggests that this mineral plays an important role in normal growth and reproduction in animals and humans, and selenium supplementation is now recommended as part of public health policy in geographical areas with severe selenium deficiency in soil. This review addresses the biological functio...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological evidence from observational studies has suggested that blood levels and dietary intake of selenium of adults with asthma are lower than those of controls. The only previous trial of selenium supplementation in adults with asthma found no objective evidence of benefit but involved only 24 participants. METHODS A randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled trial of s...

Despite the documented antioxidant and chemopreventive properties of selenium, studies of selenium intake and supplementation and cardiovascular disease have yielded inconsistent findings. The authors examined the effect of selenium supplementation (200 lg daily) on cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality through the entire blinded phase of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial (198...

The Nutritional Prevention of Cancer trial showed a 52% lower incidence of prostate cancer in men supplemented with selenium. As a result, our study was designed to assess whether selenium supplementation attenuates the progression of prostate cancer. A phase 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted in men with localized nonmetastatic prostate cancer who had e...

OBJECTIVE Recent studies have reported that antioxidant status, including serum selenium concentrations, is altered in women who develop preeclampsia. We wished to examine the effects of selenium supplementation in the prevention of preeclampsia in high-risk pregnant women. DESIGN We carried out a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial. A total of 166 primigravid pregnant wo...