Selenium as a Predictor of Metabolic Syndrome in Middle Age Women

04-12-2023

“Recently, optimizing selenium intake in the population to prevent diseases [...] has been an important issue in modern health care worldwide.”

Listen to an audio version of this press release

BUFFALO, NY- April 12, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 6, entitled, “Selenium as a predictor of metabolic syndrome in middle age women.”

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a widespread clinical entity that has become almost a global epidemic. Selenium plays an important role in metabolic homeostasis. It has been suggested that it may also affect the expression and activity of PPAR-γ—an important mediator in energy balance and cell differentiation. In this new study, researchers Daria Schneider-Matyka, Anna Maria Cybulska, Małgorzata Szkup, Bogumiła Pilarczyk, Mariusz Panczyk, Agnieszka Tomza-Marciniak, and Elżbieta Grochans from Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, West Pomeranian University of Technology and Medical University of Warsaw aimed to analyze the relationships between these variables in the context of the health of women, for whom the risk of MetS increases with age.

“The aim of this study was to search for a relationship between selenium concentrations and MetS, and to assess the impact of PPAR-γ on the incidence of MetS with regard to the moderating role of selenium.”

The study involved 390 women in middle age. The stages of study: a survey-based part; anthropometric measurements; analysis of biological material (blood) in terms of glycemia, triglyceride, HDL, and selenium levels, as well as genetic analysis of the PPAR-γ polymorphisms. The researchers found that selenium may moderate the effect of the G allele of the PPAR-γ gene on the occurrence of elevated waist circumference (OR=1.030, 95%CI 1.005-1.057, p=0.020); and the effect of the C (OR=1.077, 95%CI 1.009-1.149, p=0.026) and the G alleles (OR=1.052, 95%CI 1.025-1.080, p<0.000) on the odds of elevated blood pressure. Women in whom HDL levels were not significantly reduced, had higher selenium levels (p=0.007).

This study lead the team to 4 distinct conclusions: 

  1. The effect of selenium on MetS and its components has not been demonstrated. 
  2. The effect of individual alleles of the PPAR-γ gene on MetS and its components was not demonstrated. 
  3. The concentration of selenium may affect waist circumference in carriers of the G allele, and arterial hypertension in carriers of the C and G alleles by affecting the expression of PPAR-γ. 
  4. Higher selenium concentrations increased the odds of higher HDL levels in the group of subjects meeting the MetS criteria.
“Recently, optimizing selenium intake in the population to prevent diseases associated with selenium deficiency or excess has been an important issue in modern health care worldwide. Our study suggests the influence of selenium levels on some components of MetS, such as waist circumference, blood pressure and HDL concentration. Thus, serum selenium concentration could be considered as one of the factors affecting some components of MetS.”

Continue Reading: DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204590

Corresponding Author: Daria Schneider-Matyka

Corresponding Email: daria.schneider-matyka@pum.edu.pl 

Keywords: selenium, metabolic syndrome, PPAR-γ, middle aged women

Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article: https://aging.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Faging.204590

About Aging-US:

Aging publishes research papers in all fields of aging research including but not limited, aging from yeast to mammals, cellular senescence, age-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s diseases and their prevention and treatment, anti-aging strategies and drug development and especially the role of signal transduction pathways such as mTOR in aging and potential approaches to modulate these signaling pathways to extend lifespan. The journal aims to promote treatment of age-related diseases by slowing down aging, validation of anti-aging drugs by treating age-related diseases, prevention of cancer by inhibiting aging. Cancer and COVID-19 are age-related diseases.

Aging is indexed by PubMed/Medline (abbreviated as “Aging (Albany NY)”), PubMed CentralWeb of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (abbreviated as “Aging‐US” and listed in the Cell Biology and Geriatrics & Gerontology categories), Scopus (abbreviated as “Aging” and listed in the Cell Biology and Aging categories), Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science).

Please visit our website at www.Aging-US.com and connect with us:

For media inquiries, please contact media@impactjournals.com.