Effect of vitamin E and selenium on tissue antioxidant status of rats
Chen, L.H.
Journal of Nutrition 103(4): 503-508
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-3166 PMID: 4693663 Document Number: 59623
Ten groups each of 6 weanling male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed to appetite on a 15% casein diet without or with alpha -tocopheryl acetate to give 15, 30, 45 and 60 IU vitamin E/kg diet; sodium selenite to provide 1 mu g/g Se was added to the diet of half the rats. In a second experiment 48 rats were given the same basal diet to appetite with 1 mu g/g Se as sodium selenite, selenomethionine or selenocystine without or with vitamin E 25 IU/kg diet. After 4 weeks the extent of peroxidation of lipids in autoxidising liver tissue was estimated by thiobarbituric acid (TBA) assay (NAR 31, 2169). The Se compounds as well as vitamin E lowered TBA values; sodium selenite at 1 mu g/g was as effective as 15 IU/kg diet of vitamin E in decreasing peroxidation of liver lipids; the effects of the three Se compounds were not significantly different. In a third experiment the TBA values of homogenate of liver from rats deprived of vitamin E were lowered in vitro by the addition of alpha -tocopherol, sodium selenite, glutathione, ascorbic acid and butylhydroxyanisole whereas the values were increased by the addition in vitro of methionine, selenomethionine and selenocystine.