Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most prevalent mycotoxins, contaminating cereals and cereal-derived products. Its derivative deepoxy-deoxynivalenol (DOM-1) is produced by certain bacteria, which either occur naturally or are supplemented in feed additive. DON-induced impairments in protein synthesis are particularly problematic for highly proliferating immune cells. This study provides the first comparison of the effects of DON and DOM-1 on the concanavalin A-induced proliferation of porcine, chicken, and bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Therefore, isolated PBMCs were treated with DON (0.01-3.37 µM) and DOM-1 (1.39-357 µM) separately, and proliferation was measured using a bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) assay. Although pigs are considered highly sensitive to DON, the present study revealed a substantially higher sensitivity of bovine (IC50 = 0.314 µM) PBMCs compared to chicken (IC50 = 0.691 µM) and porcine (IC50 = 0.693 µM) PBMCs. Analyses on the proliferation of bovine T-cell subsets showed that all major subsets, namely, CD4⁺, CD8β⁺, and γδ T cells, were affected to a similar extent. In contrast, DOM-1 did not affect bovine PBMCs, but reduced the proliferation of chicken and porcine PBMCs at the highest tested concentration (357 µM). Results confirm the necessity of feed additives containing DON-to-DOM-1-transforming bacteria and highlights species-specific differences in the DON sensitivity of immune cells.
Keywords: DON; deepoxy-deoxynivalenol; deoxynivalenol, DOM-1; immune system; in vitro; lymphocyte proliferation; mycotoxin.