• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.10-10
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• 2001

Selenium is an essential nutritional element for several animal species and human. It has been also seen, that low levels of selenium in the diet can cause many diseases. This metalloid was defined like a "double face" element because it possesses antioxidant, antimutagen, anticarcinogen but also mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. The most important metabolic role of selenium in the animal species is its presence in the Glutathione Peroxidase(GSH-Px). (omitted)

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2018

Objective: Placental oxidative stress is known to be a factor that contributes to pregnancy failure. The aim of this study was to determine whether selenium could induce antioxidant gene expression and regulate invasive activity and mitochondrial activity in trophoblasts, which are a major cell type of the placenta. Methods: To understand the effects of selenium on trophoblast cells exposed to hypoxia, the viability and invasive activity of trophoblasts were analyzed. The expression of antioxidant enzymes was assessed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. In addition, the effects of selenium treatment on mitochondrial activity were evaluated in terms of adenosine triphosphate production, mitochondrial membrane potential, and reactive oxygen species levels. Results: Selenium showed positive effects on the viability and migration activity of trophoblast cells when exposed to hypoxia. Interestingly, the increased heme oxygenase 1 expression under hypoxic conditions was decreased by selenium treatment, whereas superoxide dismutase expression was increased in trophoblast cells by selenium treatment for 72 hours, regardless of hypoxia. Selenium-treated trophoblast cells showed increased mitochondrial membrane potential and decreased reactive oxygen species levels under hypoxic conditions for 72 hours. Conclusion: These results will be used as basic data for understanding the mechanism of how trophoblast cells respond to oxidative stress and how selenium promotes the upregulation of related genes and improves the survival rate and invasive ability of trophoblasts through regulating mitochondrial activity. These results suggest that selenium may be used in reproductive medicine for purposes including infertility treatment.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.146-149
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Selenium is an essential element for all life forms but can be toxic above certain narrow levels. Prevalent forms of selenium in oxic environment are selenium oxyanions such as selenite and selenate, which may be contaminants in soils and water bodies. Bacterial reduction of more mobile selenium species (selenite or selenate) to less mobile elemental selenium may suggest a benign solution for alleviating toxicity and bioavailability of the selenium species. METHODS AND RESULTS: A facultative anaerobic bacterium, Citrobacter strain SE4-1 was isolated from the contaminated stream sediments and found to effectively reduce selenite to elemental selenium. Aqueous phase of selenite was analyzed by inductively couple plasma spectroscopy and the precipitated sphere-shaped elemental selenium was observed by transmission electron microscopy. CONCLUSION: The bacterial strain SE4-1 isolated in this study suggests a potential role in biogeochemical cycle of selenium by the selenite reduction in the stream environment, and potentials for biotechnological applications to reduceselenium concentrations in selenium-contaminated systems such as wastewater, soil, and groundwater.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.3817-3824
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• 2013

Various separation modes in HPLC, such as anion exchange (AE), reversed-phase (RP), and affinity (AF) chromatography were examined for the separation of selenium species in human blood serum and urine. While RP- and AE-HPLC were mainly used for the separation of small molecular selenium species, double column AF-HPLC achieved the separation of selenoproteins in blood serum efficiently. Further, the effluent of AF-HPLC was enzymatically hydrolyzed and then analyzed with RP HPLC for selenoamino acid study. The versatility of the hybrid technique makes the in-depth study of selenium species possible. For quantification, post column isotope dilution (ID) with $^{78}Se$ spike was performed. ORC ICP/MS (octapole reaction cell inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometry) was used with 4 mL $min^{-1}$ Hydrogen as reaction gas. In urine sample, inorganic selenium and SeCys were identified. In blood serum, selenoproteins GPx, SelP and SeAlb were detected and quantified. The concentration for GPx, SelP and SeAlb was $22.8{\pm}3.4\;ng\;g^{-1}$, $45.2{\pm}1.7\;ng\;g^{-1}$, and $16.1{\pm}2.2\;ng\;g^{-1}$, respectively when $^{80}Se/^{78}Se$ was used. The sum of these selenoproteins ($84.1{\pm}4.4\;ng\;g^{-1}$) agrees well with the total selenium concentration measured with the ID method of $87.0{\pm}3.0\;ng\;g^{-1}$. Enzymatic hydrolysis of each selenium proteins revealed that SeCys is the major amino acid for all three proteins and SeMet is contained in SeAlb only.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.339-344
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• 2012

In this research, hydride generation in HPLC-ICPMS for the selenium speciation was investigated. Chemical and photochemical vapor generation techniques were compared for the effective generation of selenium vapour. $HBr/KBrO_3$ was used for the chemical reduction and a UV lamp was used for the photochemical reduction. It was found out that the photochemical reduction was more effective than the chemical reduction in all of selenium species studied. The optimum conditions for the generation of vapour are 0.4% KI, 2.5% $NaBH_4$, and 1.0 M HCl. The enhancement factor using a photochemical hydride generation was from 6.3 to 16.7 times for inorganic and organic selenium species.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2023

The advanced oxidation treatment using persulfate and zero-valent iron (ZVI) has been evaluated as a very effective technology for remediation of soil and groundwater contamination. However, the high rate of the initial reaction of persulfate with ZVI causes over-consumption of an injected persulfate, and the excessively generated active species show a low transfer rate to the target pollutant. In this study, ZVI was modified using selenium with very low reactivity in the water environment with the aim of controlling the persulfate activation rate by controlling the reactivity of ZVI. Selenium-modified ZVI (Se/ZVI) was confirmed to have a selenium coating on the surface through SEM/EDS analysis, and low reductive reactivity to trichlroethylene (TCE) was observed. As a result of inducing the persulfate activation using the synthesized Se/ZVI, the persulfated consumption rate was greatly reduced, and the decomposition rate of the model contaminant, anisole, was also reduced in proportion. However, the final decomposition efficiency was rather increased, which seems to be the result of preventing persulfate over-consumption. This is because the transfer efficiency of the active species (SO4-∙) of persulfate to the target contaminant has been improved. Selenium on the surface of Se/ZVI was not significantly dissolved even under oxidation conditions by persulfate, and most of it was present in the form of Se/ZVI. It was confirmed that the persulfate activation rate could be controlled by controlling the reactivity of ZVI, which could greatly contribute to the improvement of the persulfate oxidation efficiency.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.307-314
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• 2013

Selenium exists in various forms of chemical species. The activity and bioavailability is strongly dependent on its chemical form and concentration. Consequently the information on each selenium species and its concentration must be exactly determined for the food we take in. In this study, selenium species in seafood were separated and quantified by RP (reversed phase) HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) coupled with ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) using post-column isotope dilution. $^{79}Br$, which interferes on $^{80}Se$, has mostly been removed by solid phase extraction and then mathematical correction has been applied for the more accurate correction. The experimental result for CRM (certified reference material) DOLT-4 agreed well with the certified value but each selenium species could not be compared. SeCys (selenocysteine) and SeMet (selenomethionine) were the major species detected in seafood such as belt fish, spanish mackerel, and squid that have been serving as Korean diet. The concentrations found in Korean sea food for SeCys and SeMet were in the range of 0-661.6 mg/kg and 137.3-462.7 mg/kg, respectively.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.3767-3770
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• 2013

Potassium methylselenite ($KSeO_2(OCH_3)$) was reduced to elemental selenium, Se(0), and then doped onto montmorillonite K 10 (MK10) clay to examine the interaction between elemental mercury (Hg(0)) vapor and Se(0) in an effort to understand the possible heterogeneous reaction of Hg(0) vapor and Se(0) solid. The clay was used as a cost-effective support material for uniform dispersion of Se(0). The Se(0)-doped MK10 showed an excellent reaction performance with Hg(0) under an inert nitrogen gas at 70 and $140^{\circ}C$ in our lab-scale fixed-bed system. However, the precursor, $KSeO_2(OCH_3)$-doped MK10 showed a negligible reaction performance with Hg(0), suggesting that the oxidation state of selenium plays a key role in the reaction of Hg(0) vapor and selenium compounds.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2012

The long-lived fission products $^{79}Se$ and $^{99}Tc$ have been considered as the major concern nuclides for the disposal of radioactive waste because of their high solubilities and the existence of anionic species in natural water. In this study, the solubilities of $FeSe_2(s)$ and $TcO_2(s)$, known as respective Solubility Limiting Solid Phase (SLSP) of selenium and technetium, were measured in the KURT (KAERI Underground Research Tunnel) groundwater under various pH and redox conditions. And their solubilities and major species were also calculated using geochemical codes under conditions similar to experimental solutions. Experimental results and calculation for $FeSe_2$ show that the solubility of selenium was found to be below $1{\times}10^{-6}mol/L$ under the condition of pH 8~9.5 and Eh=-0.3~-0.4 V while the dominant species was identified as $HSe^-$. For $TcO_2$, the solubility of technetium was found to be $5{\times}10^{-8}{\sim}1{\times}10^{-9}mol/L$ in the solutions of pH 6~9.5 and Eh<-0.1 V, while the dominant species was $TcO(OH)_2$. However, when the Eh of the solution is -0.35 V, $TcO(OH)_3^-$ and $TcO_4^-$ are calculated as the dominant species at pH 10.5~12 and pH>12, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.335-341
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• 2019

Spirulina was cultured in Selenium solution and the total concentration was determined with isotope dilution technique. Low-molecular-weight-Selenium species for the water extract of Spirulina were separated and quantified with HPLC ICP/MS. Water extraction was used first and then protein enzyme (protease XIV) was used to digest and extract for the Se species in both water extract and residue. The total Se was $414.9{\pm}4.0{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$ and 77% existed in water extract while 22% remained in residue. Se species in supernatant was mostly inorganic selenate ($222.7{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$). After hydrolysis of protein, SeCys ($15.20{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) and SeMet ($12.13{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) were found. In residue, SeCys and SeMet were found with little inorganic Se. After protein hydrolysis of residue, more of Selenoamino acids SeCys ($9.35{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) and SeMet ($18.23{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) in addition to MeSeCys ($1.5{\mu}g\;g^{-1}$) were found. It is thought that inorganic selenium is mostly adsorbed on the surface of spirulina and can be easily removed by a simple distilled water extraction while most of organo-seleniums are remained in residue.