Interaction between supplemented selenium and/or vitamin E and Mn, Zn, Fe, and Cu in Schistosoma infected mice

Trace Elements Mn, Zn, Fe and Cu have been determined in livers and kidneys of normal mice supplemented with selenium (Se) and/or vitamin E, and in mice with the same supplementations but parasitized 6 weeks after receiving Se and/or Vit E with Schistosoma mansoni cercaria. No great variation in the concentration of the four elements due to the previous supplementations has been detected in liver and kidney tissue except for kidney Mn in all cases. Whereas Schistosoma infection induced a marked decrease in liver Mn content 0.05 +/- 0.01 microgram/g tissue vs 1.95 +/- 0.18 micrograms/g tissue in non infected control group. Se with or without Vit E improved this decrease in liver manganese. On the other hand liver iron showed a marked increase due to infection 288.8 +/- 20.1 micrograms/g tissue vs 170.1 +/- 21.5 micrograms/g tissue in non infected control group. Here again Se with or without Vit E normalized this value. Liver zinc was moderately increased due to different supplementations and the same effect was found due to infection 27.3 +/- 2.4 micrograms/g tissue vs 32.4 +/- 3.2 micrograms/g tissue. Liver Cu showed a normal range either due to various supplementations or due to infection. Kidney elements showed similar variation as in livers, except that the change in manganese content was greater either due to supplementations or due to infection. The results concluded that selenium supplementation may improve the deviations in some element contents in infected animals from the normal level.