Dolenšek Tamara, Švara Tanja, Knific Tanja, Gombač Mitja, Luzar Boštjan, Jakovac-Strajn Breda
Institute of Pathology, Wild Animals, Fish and Bees, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Gerbičeva ulica 60, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Institute of Food Safety, Feed and Environment, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Gerbičeva ulica 60, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Aug 28;11(9):2534. doi: 10.3390/ani11092534.
Mycotoxins are common fungal secondary metabolites in both animal feed and human food, representing widespread toxic contaminants that cause various adverse effects. Co-contamination with different mycotoxins is frequent; therefore, this study focused on feed contaminated with mycotoxins, namely, deoxynivalenol (5.08 mg/kg), zearalenone (0.09 mg/kg), and fusaric acid (21.6 mg/kg). Their effects on the liver of gilts and their piglets were chosen as the research subject as pigs are one of the most sensitive animal species that are also physiologically very similar to humans. The gilts were fed the experimental diet for 54 ± 1 day, starting late in their pregnancy and continuing until roughly a week after weaning of their piglets. Livers of gilts and their piglets were assessed for different histopathological changes, apoptosis, and proliferation activity of hepatocytes. On histopathology, gilts fed the experimental diet had a statistically significant increase in hepatocellular necrosis and apoptosis ( = 0.0318) as well as sinusoidal leukocytosis with inflammatory infiltrates of hepatic lobules ( = 0.0004). The amount of interlobular connective tissue in the liver of experimental gilts was also significantly decreased ( = 0.0232), implying a disruption in the formation of fibrous connective tissue. Apoptosis of hepatocytes and of cells in hepatic sinusoids, further assessed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) assay, showed a statistically significant increase ( = 0.0224 and = 0.0007, respectively). No differences were observed in piglet livers. These results indicated that mycotoxins elicited increased apoptosis, necrosis, and inflammation in the liver of gilts, but caused no effects on the liver of piglets at these concentrations.
霉菌毒素是动物饲料和人类食物中常见的真菌次生代谢产物，是广泛存在的有毒污染物，可导致各种不良反应。不同霉菌毒素的共同污染很常见；因此，本研究聚焦于受霉菌毒素污染的饲料，即脱氧雪腐镰刀菌烯醇（5.08毫克/千克）、玉米赤霉烯酮（0.09毫克/千克）和腐马酸（21.6毫克/千克）。由于猪是对霉菌毒素最敏感的动物物种之一，且在生理上与人类非常相似，因此选择它们对后备母猪及其仔猪肝脏的影响作为研究对象。从怀孕后期开始，给后备母猪饲喂实验日粮54±1天，持续到其仔猪断奶后约一周。评估后备母猪及其仔猪肝脏的不同组织病理学变化、细胞凋亡和肝细胞增殖活性。在组织病理学上，饲喂实验日粮的后备母猪肝细胞坏死和凋亡有统计学显著增加（P = 0.0318），同时肝小叶出现窦状白细胞增多和炎性浸润（P = 0.0004）。实验后备母猪肝脏中的小叶间结缔组织量也显著减少（P = 0.0232），这意味着纤维结缔组织形成受到破坏。通过末端脱氧核苷酸转移酶dUTP缺口末端标记（TUNEL）法进一步评估肝细胞和肝窦细胞的凋亡，结果显示有统计学显著增加（分别为P = 0.0224和P = 0.0007）。在仔猪肝脏中未观察到差异。这些结果表明，霉菌毒素会导致后备母猪肝脏细胞凋亡、坏死和炎症增加，但在这些浓度下对仔猪肝脏没有影响。
