Insights for Setting of Nutrient Requirements, Gleaned by Comparison of Selenium Status Biomarkers in Turkeys and Chickens versus Rats, Mice, and Lambs

To gain insights into nutrient biomarkers and setting of dietary nutrient requirements, selenium biomarker levels and requirements in response to multiple graded levels of dietary selenium were compared between day-old turkeys and chickens versus weanling rats and mice and 2-d-old lambs supplemented with sodium selenite. In rodents, there was no significant effect of dietary selenium on growth, indicating that the minimum selenium requirement was < 0.007 mu g Se/g diet. In contrast, there was a significant effect in turkeys, chicks, and lambs, which showed selenium requirements for growth of 0.05, 0.025, and 0.05 mu g Se/g diet, respectively. Liver glutathione peroxidase (GPX)1 activity fell in all species to < 4% of selenium-adequate levels, plasma GPX3 activity fell to < 3% in all species except for mice, and liver GPX4 activity fell to < 10% in avians but only to similar to 50% of selenium-adequate levels in rodents. Selenium-response curves for these biomarkers reached well-defined plateaus with increasing selenium supplementation in all species, collectively indicating minimum selenium requirements of 0.06-0.10 mu g Se/g for rats, mice, and lambs but 0.10-0.13 mu g Se/g for chicks and 0.23-0.33 mu g Se/g for turkeys. In contrast, increasing dietary selenium did not result in well-defined plateaus for erythrocyte GPX1 activity and liver selenium in most species. Selenium-response curves for GPX1 mRNA for rodents and avians had well-defined plateaus and similar breakpoints. GPX4 mRNA was not significantly regulated by dietary selenium in rodents, but GPX4 mRNA in avians decreased in selenium deficiency to similar to 35% of selenium-adequate plateau levels. Notably, no selenoprotein activities or mRNA were effective biomarkers for supernutritional selenium status. Robust biomarkers, such as liver GPX1 and plasma GPX3 activity for selenium, should be specific for the nutrient, fall dramatically in deficiency, and reach well-defined plateaus. Differences in biomarker-response curves may help researchers better understand nutrient metabolism and targeting of tissues in deficiency, thus to better characterize requirements.