Toxicological and physiological effects of successive exposure to ochratoxin A at food regulatory limits

Wei Wei; Chong Liu; Ping Ke; Xiaoyun Chen; Ting Zhou; Junfeng Xu; Yu Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.fct.2021.112128

Toxicological and physiological effects of successive exposure to ochratoxin A at food regulatory limits

Food Chem Toxicol. 2021 May:151:112128. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2021.112128. Epub 2021 Mar 13.

Authors

Wei Wei¹, Chong Liu², Ping Ke², Xiaoyun Chen¹, Ting Zhou³, Junfeng Xu⁴, Yu Zhou⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Institute of Agro-Product Safety and Nutrition, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China.
² Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
³ Guelph Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph, N1G 5C9, Canada.
⁴ State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Institute of Agro-Product Safety and Nutrition, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China. Electronic address: xujunfeng@zaas.ac.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, School of Tea and Food Science Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Heifei 230036, China. Electronic address: microbes@ahau.edu.cn.

PMID: 33727177
DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2021.112128

Abstract

Ochratoxin A (OTA), a potent mycotoxin, is a common contaminant of agro-products, which seriously threatens food safety. The OTA regulatory limits vary from different countries/regions. However, little is known about the toxicological effects of successive exposure to regulatory levels of OTA. In this study, feedstuffs contaminated with 0.5-20 μg kg^-1 OTA were evaluated in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. During the study, poisoning-associated behaviors, and significant differences of body weight and food intake, were not observed between OTA-treated rats and control group. However, the renal function indexes of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (CR) increased, and architecture destruction of glomeruli and tubuli was observed from the OTA-treated groups. The apoptosis study indicated that at a concentration of 20 μg kg^-1, OTA modulated apoptosis in renal tissues via the Bcl-2/Bax pathway. The results of this study suggest that exposure to low doses of OTA successively at levels lower than the regulatory limits of certain countries could induce nephrotoxicity, and modulate apoptosis. Therefore, agencies pertaining to food safety should establish strict OTA regulatory limits for food and feedstuff.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Ochratoxin A; Regulatory limits; Toxicological impacts.

MeSH terms

Animals
Apoptosis / drug effects
Body Weight / drug effects
Feeding Behavior / drug effects
Food Contamination / analysis*
Kidney / drug effects
Liver / drug effects
Male
Ochratoxins / analysis
Ochratoxins / toxicity*
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Substances

Ochratoxins
ochratoxin A