Selenoprotein T: From Discovery to Functional Studies Using Conditional Knockout Mice

Selenoprotein T (SELT) is a thioredoxin-like enzyme that exerts an essential oxidoreductase activity in the endoplasmic reticulum during development and after tissue injury where its expression is highly induced. Disruption of the Selt gene is lethal during embryogenesis, and its conditional knockout in the brain causes the reduction of several cerebral structures and increases the vulnerability of mice to neurotoxin-induced neurodegeneration. While its expression is silenced in most tissues in the adult, SELT persists at high levels in endocrine tissues such as the pancreas where it controls hormone production. Thus, SELT could be involved in the redox circuits that control homeostasis and survival of cells with intense metabolic activity during development or in adult endocrine and lesioned cerebral tissues.