Variability in the distribution of selenium in healthy heart tissue measured by neutron activation analysis

Abstract

Chronic dietary deficiency of selenium has been shown to be associated with degenerative heart disease in production animals in the U.S. and in the human in parts of China. In the latter, subjects in the endemic areas suffer high rates of a cardiomyopathy known as Keshan's Disease which is normally fatal in early adulthood and can be prevented, or reversed in its early stages, via selenium supplementation. Selenium, as the active moiety in the enzyme glutathione peroxidase, protects against oxidative attack of cell membranes by peroxides formed during normal metabolism. In this study, we investigated the distribution of selenium in healthy porcine and bovine heart tissue freshly collected at slaughter. The whole heart was perfused with DI water and carefully de-fatted. Representative samples of left and right atria and ventricles and the interventricular septum were collected, lyophilized and homogenized prior to preparing replicate samples for analysis. Replicates were analyzed for selenium via an INAA scheme employing a 5, 15 and 25 second irradiation (φth = 8·1013 n·cm−2·s−1), decay and real-time count (77mSe,T1/2=17.4 s), respectively, using high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy with Westphal pulse pile-up correction. Selenium distribution will be discussed relative to differentiated function and oxygenation of the specific tissues.