Gluten-associated pathologies have increased in recent years and there is a greater demand for low or gluten-free products. Transgenic low-gliadin wheat lines showed low T-cell response, good bread-making properties, and excellent sensory assets. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of the whole-wheat flour from one transgenic low-gliadin line (named E82) in a 90-day feeding study. In this study males (n = 50) and females (n = 50) SD rats were used. They were fed with doses of 1.42, 2.83 and 5.67 g/kg/day of the transgenic E82 line, 5.67 g/kg/day of the WT and a blank group. We found that there were no significant differences in the development of animals. Biochemistry for liver and kidney function were similar for males and females of all groups. Other haematological and metabolic blood parameters, as well as organ weight did not show significant differences in the five groups of animals. In the histopathological study performed for the higher dose of transgenic E82 line, WT and blank group no abnormalities were observed. The whole-wheat flour of E82 line administered to rats at tested doses for 90 days did not have any adverse effects and there was no difference with the rats which ate WT wheat.
Keywords: Bread wheat; Gluten intolerance; Gluten-free diet; RNAi fragments; Sprague Dawley rats.
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.