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Accumulation And Retention In Brain Of Supplemental Selenium Is Determined By Dietary Composition, Robert Fender, Merrill Christensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

It is estimated that over 6 million Americans suffer from the neurodegenerative diseases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s combined, with 1 in 4 Americans suffering from some type of mental illness (1). Oxidative damage and inflammation, which is a recognized hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, can be prevented by antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase whose key component is selenium and which relies on a selenium delivering protein called selenoprotein P (2). Since neurodegeneration that affects so many people can potentially be avoided by understanding how selenium is accumulated in and delivered to body tissue, understanding how and where selenium is accumulated …