OBJECTIVE To study the effect of vitamin B6 status on selenium retention in tissues. METHODS Weaning male Wistar, 4-week-old, fed with vitamin B6-selenium-deficient basal diet for 3 weeks was randomly divided into 6 groups. There were six experimental diets, that is basal diet (vitamin B6-selenium-deficient), basal diet supplemented with vitamin B6, and supplemented with Se 0.25 mg/kg as Na2 SeO4 and vitamin B6 0, 1.0 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg diet as pyridoxine HCl for 4 weeks, three-days metabolic test was carried out before finished the study. RESULTS Compared with each group supplemented with vitamin B6, the vitamin B6 deficient groups had a significantly low body weight gain and diet availability, and lower selenium retention in heart, liver, and kidneys, however, the status of vitamin B6 had no significant effect on the weight and selenium retention in the testes. Vitamin B6 had no significant influence on the selenium apparent absorption and retention by the three days metabolic test. CONCLUSIONS Providing adequate vitamin B6 could be benefit for improving rat growth and development and increasing selenium retention in the tissues.