Metabolic interrelationships between arsenic and selenium.

Abstract

In 1938, Moxon discovered that arsenic protected against selenium toxicity. Since that time it has been shown that this protective effect of arsenic against selenium poisoning can be demonstrated in many different animal species under a wide variety of conditions. Antagonistic effects between arsenic and selenium have also been noted in teratologic experiments. Early metabolic studies showed that arsenic inhibited the expiration of volatile selenium compounds by rats injected with acutely toxic doses of both elements. This was puzzling since pulmonary excretion had long been regarded as a means by which animals could rid themselves of excess selenium. However, later work demonstrated that arsenic increased the biliary excretion of selenium. Not only did arsenic stimulate the excretion of selenium in the bile, but selenium also stimulated the excretion of arsenic in the bile. This increased biliary excretion of selenium caused by arsenic provides a reasonable rationale for the ability of arsenic to counteract the toxicity of selenium, although the chemical mechanism by which arsenic does this is not certain. The most satisfactory explanation is that these two elements react in the liver to form a detoxication conjugate which is then excreted into the bile. This is consistent with the fact that both arsenic and selenium each increase the biliary excretion of the other. Several other metabolic interactions between arsenic and selenium have been demonstrated in vitro, but their physiological significance is not clear. Although arsenic decreased selenium toxicity under most conditions, there is a pronounced synergistic toxicity between arsenic and two methylated selenium metabolites, trimethylselenonium ion or dimethyl selenide. The ecological consequences of these synergisms are largely unexplored, although it is likely that selenium methylation occurs in the environment. All attempts to promote or prevent selenium deficiency diseases in animals by feeding arsenic have been unsuccessful. Over 30 years ago it was suggested that industrial hygienists use arsenic as a tonic to prevent or cure selenium poisoning in workers exposed to this hazard. Organic arsenical feed additives were tried as partial antidotes against selenium poisoning in livestock raised in seleniferous agricultural areas but were not found to be practical.