In conjunction with Dr. Richard Vanderpool, Dr. Finley is determining how humans retain and distribute selenium in the body, and factors which influence such retention and distribution. Understanding this may lead to an explanation as to why adequate dietary selenium is a matter of life and death in one area of the world, but seemingly of lesser consequence elsewhere. The ultimate goal of studying manganese and selenium regulation is to determine the relative importance of these trace elements to humans. If manganese is shown to be absorbed very inefficiently and eliminated very efficiently, this would argue that, under normal circumstances, the body places more emphasis on preventing accumulation of manganese than on preventing depletion of manganese. P.E. Johnson and L.K. Johnson.
Sex affects manganese absorption and retention by humans from a diet adequate in manganese.
Finley, J.W., M. Briske-Anderson, P.G. Reeves and L.K. Johnson. Studies with media containing fetal bovine serum. Finley, J.W., R.A. Vanderpool and E. Korynta. Use of stable isotopic selenium as a tracer to follow incorporation of selenium into selenoproteins.