Homeostasis of chosen bioelements in organs of rats receiving lithium and/or selenium

Abstract

Lithium is an essential trace element, widely used in medicine and its application is often long-term. Despite beneficial effects, its administration can lead to severe side effects including hyperparathyroidism, renal and thyroid disorders. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the influence of lithium and/or selenium treatment on magnesium, calcium and silicon levels in rats’ organs as well as the possibility of using selenium as an adjuvant in lithium therapy. The study was performed on rats divided into four groups (six animals each): control-treated with saline; Li-treated with Li2CO3 (2.7 mg Li/kg b.w.); Se-treated with Na2SeO3·H2O (0.5 mg Se/kg b.w.); Se + Li-treated simultaneously with Li2CO3 and Na2SeO3·H2O (2.7 mg Li/kg b.w. and of 0.5 mg Se/kg b.w., respectively). The administration was performed in form of water solutions by stomach tube once a day for 3 weeks. In the organs (liver, kidney, brain, spleen, heart, lung and femoral muscle) the concentrations of magnesium, calcium and silicon were determined. Magnesium was increased in liver of Se and Se + Li given rats. Lithium decreased tissue Ca and co-administration of selenium reversed this effect. Silicon was not affected by any treatment. The beneficial effect of selenium on disturbances of calcium homeostasis let suggest that further research on selenium application as an adjuvant in lithium therapy is worth being performed.

Effects of selenium supplementation on glycaemic control markers in healthy rodents: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Regardless of the time of supplementation, a dose of 0.5 μg/day of sodium selenite was unable to change GPX activity in the blood and liver (33) . Doses of 1 and 500 μg/kg/day sodium selenite for 30 days and 42 days, respectively, increased GPX activity in the liver and blood (35,37) . However, supplementation with higher doses of sodium selenite (864.7 μg/kg/day) for 28 days showed controversial results for this biomarker in the liver (31,38) .…”

“…A description of the studies included in this review is provided in Table 1. Sodium selenite was the form of intervention in 11 studies used at doses of 0.5 µg/day 33) , 1 μg/kg/day (35,36) , 500 μg/kg/day (37) , 864.7 μg/kg/day (29,31,32,38) , 1000 μg/day (28) , 1000 μg/kg/day, (39) and 4000 μg/kg/day (40) . The preferred routes of administration were oral, orogastric, intragastric, gavage, and injection.…”

“…Most of the studies used the standard diet ad libitum to feed rodents (28,29,41,(31)(32)(33)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39) , but none of the studies reported whether the diet administered was as recommended by AIN-93 (42) .…”