Low doses of fumonisin B1 exacerbate ochratoxin A-induced renal injury in mice and the protective roles of heat shock protein 70.

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) and ochratoxin A (OTA) possess nephrotoxicity to animals and widely co-exist in food and feedstuffs. FB1 rarely, while OTA often, causes toxicosis in animals. Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) resists lung injury induced by pneumolysin, but whether Hsp70 could remission mycotoxins-induced renal injury is still unknown. The present study aims to explore the impacts of nontoxic doses of FB1 on OTA-induced nephrotoxicity and the protective roles of Hsp70. In the mycotoxins-challenge experiment, ICR mice were co-exposed to nontoxic doses of FB1 (0, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 mg/kg bw, IP) and toxic dose of OTA (0.4 mg/kg bw, IP) for 16 d. The results showed that the levels of BUN, Cr, MDA in serum, the Cyto C in renal tubes or glomerulus, pro-apoptosis genes and p-JNK protein expression in kidney were significantly increased. Histopathological results revealed the glomerular swelling. The above all indexes were dose-dependent. In the protection experiment, the mice were pretreated with the eukaryotic plasmid of pEGFP-C3-Hsp70, these increasing parameters in the mycotoxins-challenge experiment were reversed. In vitro, after pK-15 cells were treated with 8 μM FB1 and 5 μM OTA for 48 h, the mitochondrial membrane potential was significantly reduced, mitochondrial ROS was remarkably increased, more Cyto C was leaked from mitochondria into cytoplasm, and pro-apoptosis genes were significantly up-regulated. After the Hsp70 level was up-regulated by pEGFP-C3-Hsp70 or ML346 in pK-15 cells, these above indexes were reversed. However, activation of JNK by anisomycin significantly suppressed the protective effects of Hsp70. Our results demonstrate that the nontoxic doses of FB1 exacerbate the toxic dose of OTA-induced renal injury, while Hsp70 alleviates renal injury by inhibiting the JNK/MAPK signaling pathway. Hsp70 up-regulation may be an efficient strategy for protecting against tissue damage and bio-function impairment induced by co-exposure to FB1 and OTA.