ABSTRACT
To cease the increasing damage to the brain neurons following epileptic seizures, natural anti-oxidative systems play the main role. One of the most important detoxifying systems is composed of the trace element selenium and its dependent detoxifying enzyme, glutathione peroxidase. The object of this study was to evaluate serum selenium and red blood cell glutathione peroxidase activity in pediatric epileptics and compare it with that of healthy children. Patients suffering from various types of epilepsy were studied during a 15-month period. Control group consisted of healthy children with no history of any neurologic disease. Serum selenium level and RBC Glutathione peroxidase activity was evaluated and the results compared. Fifty three epileptic patients with a mean age of 5.5 years and 57 healthy children with a mean age of 5.6 years were enrolled in this study. Statistically significant differences in the mean values for serum selenium level [72.9 vs. 86.0 ng/ml, P=0.017] and also RBC glutathione peroxidase activity [440.6 vs. 801.0 nmol/min/ml, P=0.000] between the two groups were observed. On the other hand, after analyzing the study results, trying to introduce a value for GPx activity, which could be accepted as a reliable indicator for serum selenium deficiency in patients, was not successful. Findings of the present study strongly support the proposed crucial role for the trace element selenium and deficiency of its dependent enzyme, glutathione peroxidase, in epilepsy pathogenesis