Effect of sodium selenite supplementation on the levels of Prostacyclin I2 and Thromboxane A2 in human

In this study, we conducted a 2 weeks selenium supplementation, to study the effect of selenium supplementation to the levels of PGI2 and TxB2 in human. Two weeks of sodium selenite supplementation can significantly increase the total selenium level in the serum and in the red blood cells. The supplementation also altered the ratio of PGI2 and TxB2 level in the serum. PGI2 level was significantly increased from 382.9 pg/ml before the supplementation to 576.8 pg/ml after the supplementation, while TxB2 level was significantly decreased from 22.4 pg/ml before the supplementation to 15.0 pg/ml after the supplementation. However, there was no significant change in the glutathione peroxidase activity neither in the serum nor in the red blood cells. Despite the controversy about the pathophysiological role of selenium in cardiovascular disease, due to the conflicting result in the previous reports on epidemiological studies of selenium and cardiovascular disease, the results of this study clearly showed that the level of selenium in blood has an effect on the endothelial cells by altering the expression of specific eicosanoids and supports the hypothesis that selenium plays a protective role in vascular disease. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.