Effet chez le porcelet d'une exposition à un régime co-contaminé en ...

TRAVAIL EXPERIMENTALDISCUSSIONThe aim of the current study was to compare the in vivo toxicity of FB1 and its fully hydrolyzedform, HFB1 (also named aminopentol or AP1). Despite controversial results on this compound, weshowed that the hydrolysis of FB1 strongly reduce toxicity in swine, either in liver or ingastrointestinal tract. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the HFB1 toxicity on domesticanimals.HFB1 is produced during a traditional corn treatment with calcium hydroxide and heat, alsonamed nixtamalization, the alkaline hydrolysis process removing the tricarballylic acid side chainsfrom FB1 contained in corn. Nixtamalization is the major way of processing corn in both Mexico andCentral America, as well as in the United States, to make masa and tortillas. In addition to theoccurrence of HFB1 in nixtamalized material, detoxification of FB1-contaminated foods/feeds bymicroorganisms may lead to the formation of HFB1 (Heinl et al., 2010), and the effect of its ingestionneeds to be evaluated. Considering swine shows a great sensitivity to fumonisins and because of thehigh percentage of corn in pig diets, these alternative methods of decontamination might be appliedin husbandry. Besides, considering that many biological systems (intestinal, metabolic or immune) ofpigs are very similar to that of humans, swine can be regarded as a good model that can be appliedto humans (Almond, 1996; Verma et al., 2011).In this experiment, the dose of 2 mg FB1/kg bw/day allowed us to elicit toxicity and thus tocompare at equimolar concentration the HFB1 effects. Based on averaged feed consumption for pigsof this age, this dose corresponds to feed contaminated with a concentration of 37-44 mg of FB1/kg.Over the 14-day exposure, no effect was noticed on the animal growth or the feed intake (datanot shown). No effect on the body weight gain has been already reported in pigs and poultry fed upto 50 mg FB1/kg feed (Harvey et al., 1996; Broomhead et al., 2002). The hepatotoxicity elicited byFB1 administration was not observed in HFB1-treated piglets. Indeed, biochemical changesattributed to the disturbance of some hepatic functions, such as protein and lipid metabolism, wasnot noticed in HFB1 group. Similarly, liver was not damaged after HFB1 ingestion as shown by theabsence of microscopic lesions. Inflammation has been assessed in this short-term exposure throughbiochemical markers and liver cytokines as well. The plasmatic concentrations of GGT and fibrinogenwere unaffected following HFB1 exposure. The level of cytokines at the end of experiment wasslightly modulated in livers from animals treated with HFB1, but less than in those from FB1 group. Inthis latter group, levels of IL-1β and IL-8, well known as pro-inflammatory mediators, were stillelevated as already described after FB1 exposure (Bhandari et al., 2002). Levels of IL-6 and IL-10,known among others as mediators with anti-inflammatory properties (de Vries, 1995; Xing et al.,137