Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team May 31, 2026 40 minutes ago
Medical News: Heart disease remains one of the world’s biggest killers, but a new study suggests that a simple nutrient deficiency may be quietly fueling dangerous inflammation around the heart. Researchers have found that elderly patients with coronary artery disease had lower levels of selenium, an essential trace mineral, and that this deficiency was linked to increased inflammation in a special layer of fat surrounding the heart.
Researchers discover that low selenium levels may trigger dangerous inflammation in the fat surrounding
the heart, potentially worsening coronary artery disease
The study was conducted by scientists from the Oslo Center for Clinical Heart Research and Oslo University Hospital, Norway; the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oslo, Norway; the Department of Biomedical Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark; the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland; the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway; Linköping University, Sweden; and the K.G. Jebsen Center for Cardiac Biomarkers at the University of Oslo.
A Closer Look at the Fat Around the Heart
The focus of the research was epicardial adipose tissue, a layer of fat that sits directly on the surface of the heart. While this tissue normally serves useful functions, it can become highly inflammatory with age and disease.
Unlike fat found elsewhere in the body, epicardial fat is in direct contact with the heart muscle and coronary arteries. This means inflammatory chemicals released from this tissue can easily affect the heart itself, potentially worsening coronary artery disease and contributing to heart attacks.
Researchers examined 52 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery due to coronary artery disease and compared them with 22 patients undergoing heart valve surgery who served as controls. Blood samples and tissue biopsies from epicardial fat were collected and analyzed.
Selenium Levels Were Lower in Heart Disease Patients
The study revealed that patients with coronary artery disease had significantly lower selenium levels than the control group. Median selenium levels were 0.9 µmol/L in heart disease patients compared to 1.1 µmol/L in those without coronary artery disease.
Selenium is vital because it helps the body produce selenoproteins, specialized proteins that protect cells from oxidative stress and excessive inflammation. Many European countries, especially in northern regions, have relatively low selenium levels in their soil, making inadequate intake more common.
Researchers noted that selenium levels below about 0.8 µmol/L may indicate a deficiency serious enough to impair the body's antioxidant defenses.
Evidence of Increased Inflammation
One of the most important findings involved inflammatory markers. Patients with lower selenium levels showed higher levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a powerful inflammatory molecule that has long been associated with cardiovascular disease risk.
The team also found links between low selenium levels and ac
tivation of components of the NLRP3 inflammasome, a cellular inflammatory system increasingly recognized as a major driver of heart disease.
Individuals with selenium levels above the study median had significantly lower expression of inflammatory genes known as NLRP3 and CASP1 in epicardial fat tissue. These genes help trigger inflammatory responses and can promote damage when excessively activated.
This
Medical News report highlights an important possibility that selenium may help calm inflammatory processes occurring directly around the heart rather than only affecting inflammation in the bloodstream.
Why Selenium May Protect the Heart
The researchers believe selenium's protective effects are largely due to its role in supporting antioxidant selenoproteins such as glutathione peroxidases and thioredoxin reductases.
These proteins neutralize harmful reactive oxygen species, unstable molecules that damage cells and trigger inflammation. When selenium levels fall, antioxidant defenses weaken, allowing oxidative stress to increase.
Analysis of publicly available genetic datasets showed that epicardial fat contains high levels of several important selenoproteins, including GPX1, GPX3, GPX4, SELENOP and SELENOW. This suggests selenium-dependent protective systems are highly active in this tissue and may play a critical role in maintaining heart health.
The findings also support earlier studies showing that selenium supplementation can reduce inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and C-reactive protein while improving cardiovascular outcomes in some elderly populations.
New Clues About Heart Disease Progression
The researchers propose that inadequate selenium may contribute to a chain reaction involving oxidative stress, inflammasome activation and inflammatory cytokine production within epicardial fat. Because this tissue sits directly against the heart muscle and coronary arteries, the resulting inflammation could accelerate artery damage and disease progression.
Interestingly, patients with a previous heart attack appeared more likely to have lower selenium levels, suggesting that selenium deficiency may be associated with more severe forms of coronary artery disease.
Conclusion
The study provides compelling new evidence that selenium status may play a previously underappreciated role in regulating inflammation within the fat surrounding the heart. Elderly patients with coronary artery disease were found to have lower selenium levels, and these lower levels were associated with stronger inflammatory activity both in the bloodstream and within epicardial adipose tissue itself. The findings suggest that reduced selenium availability may weaken antioxidant defenses, activate inflammatory pathways, and potentially contribute to worsening coronary artery disease. While the research does not prove that selenium deficiency directly causes heart disease, it opens an important new area of investigation. Future studies will be needed to determine whether improving selenium status through diet or supplementation could help reduce heart-related inflammation and slow disease progression in high-risk individuals.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Antioxidants.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/15/6/687
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Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/cardiology
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/supplements
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