Harrison P T
BP Group Occupational Health Centre, Guilford, Surrey, UK.
Food Chem Toxicol. 1992 Apr;30(4):333-40. doi: 10.1016/0278-6915(92)90012-a.
Propionic acid (PA) is widely used as an antifungal agent in food. It is present naturally at low levels in dairy products and occurs ubiquitously, together with other short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), in the gastro-intestinal tract of humans and other mammals as an end-product of the microbial digestion of carbohydrates. It has significant physiological activity in animals. PA is irritant but produces no acute systemic effects and has no demonstrable genotoxic potential. Rats receiving PA at 4% in the diet develop hyperplastic lesions and tumours of the forestomach. Such changes are also reported to have been produced by a variety of other chemicals, mechanical and chemical irritants, parasites, and even various dietary insufficiencies or imbalances. Evidence suggests that repeated or persistent damage to cells of the forestomach epithelium and associated proliferative responses may be a common factor in rodent forestomach tumorigenesis. Although humans do not have a forestomach, the mouth, pharynx and oesophagus are lined with similar epithelium and thus are potential target organs. However, food contact time is considerably less in these organs than in the rodent forestomach. On current evidence, PA cannot be considered a carcinogenic risk to humans; nevertheless, to determine a safe level of dietary exposure it is suggested that no-observable-effect levels should be determined for epithelial cell damage and proliferative responses in the squamous mucosa of laboratory animals, particularly in those parts of the gastro-intestinal tract having a counterpart in humans, such as the pharynx and oesophagus.
丙酸（PA）在食品中广泛用作抗真菌剂。它在乳制品中天然含量较低，并且作为碳水化合物微生物消化的终产物，与其他短链脂肪酸（SCFA）一起普遍存在于人类和其他哺乳动物的胃肠道中。它在动物体内具有显著的生理活性。PA具有刺激性，但不会产生急性全身效应，也没有明显的遗传毒性潜力。在饮食中摄入4%PA的大鼠会出现前胃增生性病变和肿瘤。据报道，多种其他化学物质、机械和化学刺激物、寄生虫，甚至各种饮食不足或失衡也会产生这种变化。有证据表明，前胃上皮细胞的反复或持续损伤以及相关的增殖反应可能是啮齿动物前胃肿瘤发生的一个共同因素。虽然人类没有前胃，但口腔、咽和食管内衬有类似的上皮，因此是潜在的靶器官。然而，这些器官中的食物接触时间比啮齿动物的前胃要短得多。根据目前的证据，PA不能被认为对人类有致癌风险；然而，为了确定饮食接触的安全水平，建议确定实验动物鳞状粘膜上皮细胞损伤和增殖反应的无观察到有害作用水平，特别是在胃肠道中与人类有对应部位的那些部分，如咽和食管。
