Metabolic effects of selenium as related to vitamin E

Trace amounts of dietary selenium, which prevent certain vitamin E deficiency symptoms, have been found to affect the composition of chick tissues. Both selenium and vitamin E increased liver coenzyme A levels to normal when cystine was omitted from the diet. Liver and plasma total fatty acids were unaltered by selenium but vitamin E increased the arachidonic acid content slightly. There was no effect of either selenium or vitamin E on total lipid, cholesterol, phopholipid or coenzyme Q in liver. Low dietary levels of either selenium or vitamin E, which were insufficient in preventing deficiency symptoms, completely eliminated mortality from toxic amounts of a dietary antioxidant. The ability of dietary selenium to reducein vitro lipid peroxidation in chick liver homogenates was not demonstrable with rat liver.