Determination of selenium in plasma, urine and tissues, of standard diet-fed rats and dogs by ETA-atomic absorption spectroscopy with Zeeman background correction.

The method described was developed to be applied in determination of selenium in biological matrices (plasma, urine and tissues) using ETA-AAS with Zeeman background correction. These matrices were obtained from non-fasting S.D. rats and Beagle dogs of both sexes in order to acquire data on the endogenous levels of selenium in these laboratory animals when fed with standard diets. For tissue digestion, a simple procedure using the strong organic base, Soluene 350, was adopted. Precision assays were carried out monitoring Se(IV) levels in spiked matrices (range from 25 to 200 ng) and obtaining relative standard deviations (RSD%) in the range from 3.2% to 14.5% (intra-day) and from 7.6% to 15.9% (inter-day). Accuracy assays gave relative errors (RE%) in the range from -6.5 to 4.2% (intra-day) and from -5.5% to 5.7% (inter-day). The validity of the method was checked on reference material (NBS SRM 1577 bovine liver) and the values obtained correlated with the certified ones. The detection limit assumed was 0.9 ng/ml, whereas the quantitation limit of selenium in matrices ranged from 2 to 5 ng/ml (or g), depending on the kind of sample.