A new study has found that a natural antioxidant, selenium, which is found in protein-rich foods like red meat, seafood and nuts, is crucial for fertility in women.
University of Adelaide’s Melanie Ceko investigated the role and location of selenium in the ovary, and a specific protein that includes selenium. The results of her study for the first time show how important selenium is to the development of healthy ovarian follicles, which are responsible for the production of eggs in women.
Ceko said that selenium is important for many biological functions, such as immune response, thyroid hormone production, and acts as an antioxidant, helping to detoxify damaging chemicals in the body. Though it was known to be important to men’s fertility, but until now no-one had researched how this element could be involved in healthy reproduction in women.
The findings were important, because they show that selenium and selenoproteins are at elevated levels in large, healthy ovarian follicles. It is suspected that they play a critical role as an antioxidant during the late stages of follicle development, helping to lead to a healthy environment for the egg, she added.
They found that gene expression of a selenoprotein, GPX1, was significantly higher – in some cases double – in egg cells that yielded a pregnancy.
The research is published in the international journal Metallomics.
—-ANI