Studies on mechanisms of diarrhea induced by fusarenon-X, a trichothecene mycotoxin from Fusarium species: fusarenon-X-induced diarrhea is not mediated by cyclic nucleotides.

Cardinal signs of red mold toxicosis in man and farm animals are vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and food refusal. The red mold toxicosis has been suggested to be induced by trichothecenes, which are produced by Fusarium fungi. Fusarenon-X (F-X) is one of the trichothecene mycotoxins. The ip injection of F-X to rats causes an expansion of the small intestine and watery diarrhea. In this study, we measured the concentrations of protein, sodium, potassium, and calcium in the serum of rat treated with F-X for the sake of demonstrating the loss of serum protein and the decreases of serum sodium and calcium by F-X. Since it is well known that some diarrheal diseases are due to the increase of cyclic nucleotide level in the intestinal mucosa, we also measured cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP levels in the intestinal mucosa. It was demonstrated that F-X did not increase the cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP levels in the jejunal and the ileal mucosa at 8 and 24 hr after F-X treatment. The results obtained in this work suggest that F-X-induced diarrhea is not mediated by the cyclic nucleotide system.