Serum Concentration of Selenium and GPX Enzyme Activity in Iranian Children with Asthma

Background: asthmais a disease with chronic airwayinflammation, wherebythe airway hyper-reactivity increases. oxidative stress balance plays a critical role in asthma.objectives: the present study aimed to evaluate serum glutathione peroxidase (gpx) enzyme activity and selenium levels in patients with asthma. methods: this case-control study was conducted on 64 children aged 1-5 years, 32 subjects as controls, and 32 subjects with asthma who were selected randomly. the serum gpx activity and selenium levels of the studied subjects were determined spectrophotometrically. results: the present study showed that serumgpxactivity and selenium (se) levels of patients with asthma were significantly lowerthan those of controls (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively). conclusions: reduction of serum gpx activity and se concentration in patients could have a potential role in the pathogenesis and modulation of asthma. micronutrient supplementation of se may be beneficial in asthma.