Maternal selenium status in pregnancy, offspring glutathione peroxidase 4 genotype, and childhood asthma

Abstract

In the ALSPAC birth cohort, we investigated whether higher maternal blood concentration of selenium in pregnancy is associated with a lower risk of asthma and wheezing at age 7 years and whether associations are modified by the GPX4 genotype
There was evidence of interaction between maternal selenium status and child GPX4 genotype on asthma (P interaction .068) and wheezing (P interaction .011), with an odds reduction of 83% to 84% per doubling increase in blood selenium concentration in children who were homozygous for the minor T allele of rs713041; maternal blood selenium concentration was not associated with these outcomes in children carrying the C allele
There is other evidence confirming that T/C variation has functional consequences,[7] including a study showing that in individuals with the GPX4 TT genotype, oxidative stress decreased as in vivo selenium concentrations in vitro, selenium is necessary for the maximum expression of GPX4 in human lung epithelial cells.[9]