• Narchonai Elango, Shila Samuel, and Panneerselvam Chinnakkannu.
• Department of Medical Biochemistry, Dr. ALM Post Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras, Taramani Campus, Chennai-600 113, India.
• Clin. Chim. Acta. 2006 Nov 1;373(1-2):92-8.

BackgroundOxidative stress is implicated in oral carcinogenesis and has been found to be aggravated during radiotherapy. A great deal of attention has been focused on the possible therapeutic implications of selenium as a potent antioxidant. We determined whether selenium supplementation to radiation treated oral cancer patients render improvement in the antioxidant status against oxidative stress.MethodBlood samples were collected from stage (III) oral cancer patients before initiating radiotherapy (Group B) (n=63) and this group is bifurcated into Group C-patients given radiotherapy alone (n=27) and Group D-patients given radiotherapy and supplemented with selenium (400 mug/day for 6 months) (n=36). Both Group C and D were followed up for 6 months. We evaluated the plasma selenium concentration, non-enzymatic system including GSH, vitamins E, C, A and ceruloplasmin and enzymatic antioxidant system including superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase.ResultsThe concentrations of selenium, all non-enzymatic antioxidants and the activities of enzymatic antioxidants were found to be lowered in oral cancer patients (Group B), compared to normal (Group A) (p<0.05). Similar decrease in the concentration of selenium and antioxidants status was observed in radiotherapy group (Group C) (p<0.05). On the contrary, selenium group (Group D) showed marked increase in the concentrations of selenium and antioxidant status at 6 months compared to radiation group (Group C) (p<0.05).ConclusionThe observed result represents the antioxidant property of selenium through the improvement of antioxidant defense system. Selenium supplementation could be of great interest in protecting cells against oxidative stress.

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