Abouzied M M, Horvath A D, Podlesny P M, Regina N P, Metodiev V D, Kamenova-Tozeva R M, Niagolova N D, Stein A D, Petropoulos E A, Ganev V S
Neogen Corporation, Lansing, MI, USA.
Food Addit Contam. 2002 Aug;19(8):755-64. doi: 10.1080/02652030210145036.
Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN), a chronic renal disease of unknown aetiology, is found in geographically close areas of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Ochratoxin A (OTA), a secondary metabolite of Aspergillus and Penicillium species and a natural contaminant of food and feed, is a putative cause of BEN. Some studies have found a geographic covariation between OTA content in food/feed and BEN manifestation; others have not. In May 2000, using a competitive direct ELISA assay for OTA (detection limit 1 microg kg(-1)), we investigated OTA contamination in 165 samples of home-produced food (beans, potatoes, corn, wheat, flour) and feed from households in villages from the BEN region (Vratza district) of north-western Bulgaria. Samples were collected from: (a) BEN villages (n = 8), and therein from BEN households (20), and BEN-free households (16) (within-village controls, WVC households); and (b) BEN-free villages (7) and therein BEN-free households (22) (between-village controls, BVC). BEN households consistently had a higher proportion of OTA-positive samples than WVC households, but similar (for some foods) or lower (for other foods) proportions to BVC households. The proportion of OTA-positive samples was also higher in BVC than in WVC households. Furthermore, BEN households had a similar proportion of OTA-positive samples to the pooled, WVC and BVC, group of households. OTA-exposure estimates, derived from our OTA-concentration findings and the reported average per capita monthly consumption of basic foods in rural Bulgaria, showed the highest OTA intake in BEN households (1.21 microg day(-1)), versus 1.03 microg day(-1) in BVC and 0.71 microg day(-1) in WVC households. These OTA intakes are higher than those in the EU, and are close to the upper limits acceptable to several food-safety organizations. The results indicate that OTA may not alone cause BEN; only synergistically with other environmental toxicants and/or predisposing genotypes may do so.
巴尔干地方性肾病（BEN）是一种病因不明的慢性肾脏疾病，在保加利亚、罗马尼亚、塞尔维亚、克罗地亚、波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那、斯洛文尼亚以及前南斯拉夫的马其顿共和国等地理上相邻的地区均有发现。赭曲霉毒素A（OTA）是曲霉菌和青霉菌的次生代谢产物，也是食品和饲料的天然污染物，被认为是BEN的一个可能病因。一些研究发现食品/饲料中OTA含量与BEN表现之间存在地理共变关系；另一些研究则未发现。2000年5月，我们使用一种针对OTA的竞争性直接酶联免疫吸附测定法（检测限为1微克/千克），对保加利亚西北部BEN地区（弗拉察区）村庄家庭自制的165份食品（豆类、土豆、玉米、小麦、面粉）和饲料样本中的OTA污染情况进行了调查。样本采集自：（a）BEN村庄（n = 8），其中包括BEN家庭（20户）和无BEN家庭（16户）（村内对照，即WVC家庭）；以及（b）无BEN村庄（7个）及其内的无BEN家庭（22户）（村间对照，即BVC家庭）。BEN家庭中OTA阳性样本的比例始终高于WVC家庭，但与BVC家庭相比，（某些食品）比例相似或（其他食品）比例更低。BVC家庭中OTA阳性样本的比例也高于WVC家庭。此外，BEN家庭中OTA阳性样本的比例与WVC和BVC家庭的合并组相似。根据我们的OTA浓度研究结果以及保加利亚农村地区报告的基本食品人均月消费量得出的OTA暴露估计值显示，BEN家庭的OTA摄入量最高（1.21微克/天），而BVC家庭为1.03微克/天，WVC家庭为0.71微克/天。这些OTA摄入量高于欧盟的水平，接近几个食品安全组织可接受的上限。结果表明，OTA可能并非单独导致BEN；只有与其他环境毒物和/或易感基因型协同作用时才可能导致BEN。
