SELENIUM STATUS AND LIPOPROTEINS IN HEALTHY AND DIABETIC CHILDREN

Selenium and the selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) we re measured in healthy and diabetic children from Germany and Hungary, Hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia are present in diabetes mellitus and they are associated with increased lipid peroxidation. The selenium c ontent of erythrocytes, whole blood and plasma, as well as of plasma g lutathione peroxidase activity, were found to be low in the healthy Hu ngarian children compared to the healthy Germans. Both groups of diabe tics had significantly higher blood selenium (1.05 +/- 0.14 versus 0.8 6 +/- 0.1 mu mol/L in Hungarians, 1.34 +/- 0.21 versus 1.12 +/- 0.22 m u mol/L in Germans) and higher plasma selenium (0.89 +/- 0.15 Versus 0 .68 +/- 0.01 mu mol/L in Hungarians and 1.01 +/- 0.2 versus 0.88 +/- 0 .19 mu mol/L in Germans) than the healthy children of the same countri es. In all diabetic children the plasma glutathione peroxidase activit y and triglycerides were higher and the plasma HDL-cholesterols (HDLC = high density lipoprotein-cholesterol) lower than those in healthy co ntrols. The patients showed linear correlations between blood glucose and plasma glutathione peroxidase activity, as well as in erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity with triglycerides (TG) and an inverse correlation with HDL-cholesterol. Plasma selenium correlated only in healthy children with triglycerides, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol, Irrespective of the geographical region diabetics had a higher seleniu m status than healthy children. In addition, we found correlations bet ween selenium and lipoproteins in the reference group. The mode of gly cation, oxidative procedures and the selenium binding to lipoproteins could explain the different associations in the healthy and diabetic c hildren.