CASP3 and injury: Indeed, published studies have reported that dietary selenium protects against selected signs of ageing [39], enhances ATP production in traumatic brain injury [40], increases the activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes II, III, and IV [41] and inhibits mitochondria-initiated activation of the capase-9 and caspase-3 cell death pathway [10] after oxidative stress or hypoxic/ischemic injuries.