Long-term selenium supplementation of humans: Selenium status and relationships between selenium concentrations in skeletal muscle and indicator materials

Supplementation with elevated doses of l-selenomethionine (SeM) or selenium-enriched yeast that contains SeM as the main selenium species is frequently used as a protective or therapeutic measure. Information on the effects of long-term selenium supplementation on the body selenium status is, however, rather scarce. We therefore investigated fifteen male test persons who had taken selenium yeast and/or SeM supplements in medium doses of 62.5–125 μg Se/day or high doses of 200–262.5 μg Se/day for periods ranging from 1 year to 24 years. Seven non-supplemented men served as controls. As skeletal muscle is the main selenium pool, thigh muscle biopsy samples were taken. The selenium concentrations in these biopsies and in samples of the indicator materials blood, blood plasma, blood cells, head hair and toenails were determined by neutron activation analysis. Compared with the controls, the muscle selenium level was raised with additional selenium supplementation, but the relative increase in the mean muscle selenium concentration (by factors of about 1.6 and 2 for the medium and high doses, respectively) was lower than that in the selenium intake. Highly significant correlations found between the selenium concentrations in muscle and whole blood (R=0.90), red blood cells (R=0.91), blood plasma (R=0.87), head hair (R=0.89) and toenails (R=0.85) show that in humans supplemented in this way the selenium status can be assessed in a relatively easy way by analysis of the selenium retention in these indicator materials.