Dourado Fernando, Gama Miguel, Rodrigues Ana Cristina
Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Toxicol Rep. 2017 Sep 25;4:543-553. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2017.09.005. eCollection 2017.
Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biopolymer synthesized by certain acetic acid bacteria strains. The safety of BC regarding its potential use in food applications is here reviewed. The acute, sub-acute and subchronic oral toxicity assays showed that consumption of BC had no adverse effects in rats. Several studies demonstrated that BC is not genotoxic, did not induce chromosomal aberrations in CHO cells under both non-activating and metabolic activating conditions, is inactive in the Rat Primary Hepatocyte Unscheduled DNA Synthesis Assay, had no reproductive toxicity in mice and exerted no embryotoxicity and teratogenicity effects in rats. Several studies on the BC in biomedical applications further reinforces its safety: a primary eye and dermal irritation studies in the rabbit showed that BC was non-irritating. The inflammatory reaction to subcutaneously implanted BC has been evaluated in animal models and for different periods of time, demonstrating that BC is biocompatible and does not trigger a harsh inflammatory reaction. Altogether, and considering its longstanding history of human consumption in Asian countries, as well as its utilization in biomedical devices, it may be concluded that BC is safe for applications in food technology.
细菌纤维素（BC）是由某些醋酸杆菌菌株合成的一种生物聚合物。本文综述了BC在食品应用中的潜在用途的安全性。急性、亚急性和亚慢性经口毒性试验表明，食用BC对大鼠没有不良影响。多项研究表明，BC无遗传毒性，在非活化和代谢活化条件下均未诱导CHO细胞染色体畸变，在大鼠原代肝细胞非预定DNA合成试验中无活性，对小鼠无生殖毒性，对大鼠无胚胎毒性和致畸作用。关于BC在生物医学应用中的多项研究进一步证实了其安全性：对家兔进行的原发性眼和皮肤刺激性研究表明，BC无刺激性。已在动物模型中对皮下植入BC后的炎症反应进行了不同时间段的评估，结果表明BC具有生物相容性，不会引发强烈的炎症反应。总体而言，考虑到其在亚洲国家长期的人类食用历史以及在生物医学设备中的应用，可以得出结论，BC在食品技术应用中是安全的。
