nervous system, limb buds, blood cells, lung, liver, intestine, testis, and developing epithelia, as well as in extraembryonic tissues, during organogenesis. The authors suggest that this increase in Sepp may provide antioxidant protection against the reactive oxygen species formed during embryogenesis, as well as provide a transplacental or intraembyronic selenium transport function (Lee et al. 2008). Additional evidence supporting a role for SelP in growth and development includes observations from the SelP knockout mouse, which displays a phenotype that includes growth retardation, neurological impairment, and male infertility (Hill et al. 2003; Schomburg et al. 2003; Renko et al. 2008). The regulatory signals responsible for modulating SEPP1 expression for the purpose of growth and development are currently under investigation.
