Dietary selenium and aniline-induced methemoglobinemia in rats.

Depletion of selenium from rats for 8 weeks decreased blood glutathione peroxidase activity to 5.7% of that in selenium-supplemented (0.5 ppm selenium as Na2SeO3) rats. Aniline (60 mg/kg, i.p.) resulted in no significant difference in methemoglobin and blood reduced glutathione (GSH) levels between Se-deficient and Se-supplemented rats. A lowered aniline dose (36 mg/kg, i.p.) also resulted in no difference in methemoglobin levels. The selenium-deficient rat was able to reduce methemoglobin induced by aniline as efficiently as the selenium-sufficient rat.