[Significance of selenium deficiency on myocardial protection of the mature and immature rat hearts].

A trace element selenium (Se) is an integral component of glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) which is one of the important free radical scavenger. We previously reported that serum Se level and serum and myocardial GSHPx activities were significantly lower in infant rats than adult ones. Exactly the same conditions were made by feeding Se-deficient diet for 8 weeks in Wistar rats. Vulnerability to ischemic injury was tested using these Se-deficient rats. Wistar rats fed a commercial laboratory ration were used as a control. Isolated hearts were perfused aerobically with Krebs-Henseleit solution in the Langendorff mode for 15 minutes followed by coronary perfusion with St. Thomas Hospital cardioplegic solution. The hearts were subjected to 60 minutes global ischemia at 4 degrees C. The hearts were reperfused for 30 minutes in working mode, and aortic pressure, LV pressure, LV max dp/dt, coronary flow and aortic flow were measured. In Se-deficient rats aortic pressure (58.5 +/- 1.9 versus 77.3 +/- 8.5 mmHg, p less than 0.01), LV max dp/dt (2023 +/- 153 versus 2722 +/- 513 mmHg/sec, p less than 0.05), aortic flow (8.7 +/- 2.7 versus 17.0 +/- 2.5 ml/g wet wt., p less than 0.01), cardiac output (17.0 +/- 4.6 versus 24.6 +/- 2.0 ml/g wet wt., p less than 0.05) and stroke volume (67.5 +/- 11.6 versus 95.6 +/- 9.8 microliters/g wet wt., p less than 0.01) were significantly inferior to control rats. Then the hearts were iced instantly by fluid nitrogen and myocardial thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) level was measured.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)