It is shown that enriching the rat diet with selenium and vitamin E augments the generation of spleen antibody-producing cells and the T-cell blast-transformation response to mitogen. The addition of selenium alone fails to affect the immune reaction; however, the addition of vitamin E alone boosts the T-cell response to mitogen. Dietary supplementation with selenium and/or vitamin E has no marked effect on the function of peritoneal macrophages or on lipid peroxidation.
Examination of the fatty-acid composition of lipids contained in the liver, spleen, blood plasma, aggregated lymphatic follicles of the small intestine, and mesenteric lymph nodes of rats fed diets supplemented with selenium revealed an appreciable effect of this element on the efficiency with which linoleic acid was metabolized to arachidonic acid, which was reflected in an increased 20:4/18:2 ratio. In contrast, Se was found to have little or no effect on levels of lipid peroxidation products in tissues and blood serum.
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