Journal of Molecular Biomarkers & Diagnosis

Biomarkers of Selenium Toxicity after Sub-Acute Exposure in Mice

Abstract

Eugene Jansen, Dale Viezeliene, Piet Beekhof, Eric Gremmer, Hiliaras Rodovicius, Ilona Sadauskiene and Leonid Ivanov

Selenium (Se) is a trace element, essential for human health but it can be toxic at moderately higher intake levels. In this study biomarkers of Se toxicity after sub-acute intra-peritoneal exposure to Se (62.5 µg Se/kg bw/ day; 14 days) were investigated in mice. Such exposure corresponds to high human Se-intake levels. Focus was put on the biomarkers of systemic effects and on the toxicity in liver, kidney and brain. The sub-acute exposure to Se resulted in an increase in the concentrations of systemic inflammation biomarkers IL-6 (p=0.025) and resistin (p=0.049) and in a decrease of TNF-α (p=0.008). No effect on concentrations of MCP-1, tPAI-1, leptin and insulin was observed in serum. Also biomarkers of oxidative stress, anti-oxidant parameters and enzymes ALT and AST were not affected. In the tissue homogenates of liver, kidney and brain changes were observed in the activities of enzymes LDH (p=0.013), ALP (p=0.0009) and GGT (p=0.0047). In the brain homogenate an influx of TG (p=0.0044) and a decrease in the total GSH concentration (p=0.008) was observed. It was concluded that although the sub-acute exposure to a relatively high concentration of Se causes an increase in concentration of some biomarkers of intracellular processes, especially in the brain, the effect of Se can be considered as low toxicity.