Changes in ornithine decarboxylase activity and polyamine levels in response to eight different forms of selenium.

The biological activity of selenium is known to depend on its chemical form. In this study, eight forms of selenium that differed in oxidation state or degree of methylation were studied for their acute effects on the activities of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMet DC) and on the concentrations of the polyamines putrescine, spermidine, and spermine in the liver. The polyamine pathway was studied because it is involved in the control of cell growth and in the cell's response to trophic, carcinogenic, and toxic stimuli, activities that selenium has been reported to affect. Female Sprague Dawley rats were administered 12 mumol Se/kg body weight via intraperitoneal injection and were sacrificed six hours later. Injection of sodium selenate, sodium selenite, selenomethionine, Se-methylselenocysteine, selenobetaine, and selenobetaine methyl ester resulted in significant increases in liver selenium, whereas injection of dimethylselenoxide and trimethylselenonium chloride did not. ODC activity and AdoMet DC activity were induced by those selenium compounds that also increased liver selenium content, but the magnitude of enzyme induction by those compounds was not correlated with the hepatic concentration of total selenium determined fluorometrically. Furthermore, the induction of ODC activity by the various forms of selenium did not result in concomitant increases in putrescine, spermidine, and spermine except in the case of selenite. Given that alterations in the metabolism of selenium are induced when the level of tissue selenium is elevated and that the relative abundance of various selenometabolites can be affected by the point of entry of selenium into intermediary metabolism, these data suggest that the changes that were observed in enzyme activities and polyamine levels are likely to be associated with the accumulation of a specific metabolite of selenium. The relevance of these findings to elucidation of the biological activities attributable to various forms of selenium is under investigation.