To assess SELENOT status in PD, sedated male C57BL/6 mice at 10-12 wk of age were injected with 6-hydroxydopamine in neurons, and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from 9 healthy subjects (56% men, 68-y-old) and 11 subjects with PD (64% men, 63-y-old).
While physiological functions of the Rdx family of selenoproteins are not fully understand, results from animal models demonstrated that (1) brain-specific SELENOT knockout mice are susceptible to 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium-induced Parkinson's disease in association with redox imbalance and (2) adult zebrafishes with heterozygous SELENOH knockout are prone to dimethylbenzanthracene-induced tumorigenesis together with increased DNA damage and oxidative stress.