SELENIUM DETOXIFICATION BY METHYLATION

Citation
Bs. Hassoun et al., SELENIUM DETOXIFICATION BY METHYLATION, Research communications in molecular pathology and pharmacology, 90(1), 1995, pp. 133-142
Citations number
25
Categorie Soggetti
Pharmacology & Pharmacy",Pathology,Biology
ISSN journal
10780297
Volume
90
Issue
1
Year of publication
1995
Pages
133 - 142
Database
ISI
SICI code
1078-0297(1995)90:1<133:SDBM>2.0.ZU;2-J
Abstract
The major detoxification process for selenium is methylation. The majo r pathway for the formation of methylated compounds in biological syst ems is transmethylation catalyzed by methyltransferases. In this study methyltransferase activity was assayed in the liver cytosol prepared from different strains of rats using HPLC method by measuring the form ation of epinephrine from norepinephrine. The methyltransferase activi ty in Fischer, Wistar, and Sprague-Dawley rats were 1.65 x 10(-12), 0. 74 x 10(-12), and 1.2 x 10(-12) moles epinephrine formed/mg protein/hr respectively. Volatilization of injected Se (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) was fou nd to be higher in Wistar rats compared to Fischer rats. LD(50) for Wi star and Fischer rats were 2.58 and 3.15 mg Se/kg respectively. Our re sults suggest that the methylation of dimethyl selenide to trimethyl s elenide appears to be an important step in the detoxification of selen ium.