Effects of cadmium treatment on selenium-dependent and selenium-independent glutathione peroxidase activities and lipid peroxidation in the kidney and liver of rats maintained on various levels of dietary selenium.

Rats fed a basal, low-selenium diet, or this diet supplemented with 0.1 ppm and 1.0 ppm selenium and treated with cadmium, showed significant reductions in the activity of the selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase in kidney and liver. Cadmium treatment resulted in a significant increase in the activity of selenium-independent glutathione peroxidase activity in the liver of selenium-supplemented rats. Selenium-independent glutathione peroxidase activity was significantly reduced in the kidney of rats fed the basal low-selenium diet. There was no significant increase in lipid peroxidation in any of the groups studied. Cadmium concentrations in the kidney and liver of these animals ranged from about 250 to 700 micrograms Cd/g tissue, dry weight.