Effects of selenium deficiency on aldehyde oxidase 1 in rats

Selenium deficiency has been reported to result in an extraordinary decrease of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and, reversely, an increase of detoxifying enzymes such as glutathione-S-transferase (GST), uridine-5'-diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase (UGT), nicotinamide-dependent quinine oxidoreductase (NQO1; DT-diaphorase), and epoxide hydrolase without significantly affecting cytochrome P450 activity. However, little is known about the effects on aldehyde oxidase 1 (AOX1) activity towards various kinds of aldehydes and N-heterocyclic aromatic compounds. The aim of this study is to clarify the effects of selenium deficiency on AOX1 in rats. As expected, selenium deficiency was confirmed by the extremely low activity of GSH-Px along with the increased activities of GST and DT-diaphorase. AOX1 activity towards vanillin and (S)-RS-8359 was increased by selenium deficiency, and that corresponded to an increase of AOX1 protein level but not to a decreased AOX1 mRNA level. It has been documented that the assembly of the catalytically active holoenzyme forms of the molybdo-flavoenzyme family is very complex and is controlled through transcriptional and translational events by many gene products. In addition, selenium deficiency has been known to cause oxidative stress that leads to an increase of AOX1 activity. Furthermore, aldehyde oxidase homolog 1 (AOH1) with properties similar to AOX1 is present in rodent liver. All the reports suggest that the mechanisms by which selenium deficiency increases AOX1 activity are highly complicated and investigated from different points of view.