title: Influence of age on the selenium status in Belgium and The Netherlands.
abstract: Plasma selenium concentration and glutathione peroxidase activity in red blood cells were determined in subjects from different age groups. The selenium level (mean +/- SD) found in infancy (0 to 6 months) was 2 +/- 0.6 micrograms/dl, with the lowest value of 1 microgram/dl observed in a 4-month-old infant. These levels were significantly lower (p less than 0.001) than the value of 9.5 +/- 1.1 micrograms/dl found in the adult group and 7.7 +/- 1.3 micrograms/dl found in the group of older children (2 to 15 yr). Younger children (6 to 24 months of age) had intermediate levels of 5 +/- 1.2 micrograms/dl. When the data were plotted on a logarithmic scale as a function of age, the figure shows clearly that the plasma selenium levels increase steadily with age throughout life after an initial drop at 60 to 90 days. There was a satisfactory correlation between the plasma selenium concentration and the enzyme glutathione peroxidase activity in the red blood cells (Spearman's p = 0.45, p less than 0.005). Although very low selenium values were observed, the enzyme glutathione peroxidase activity remained above 10 U/g hemoglobin (with only one exception) in all patients.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000032:analysis; D005979:Glutathione Peroxidase / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D012643:Selenium / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D005979:Glutathione Peroxidase; D012643:Selenium