Biomarkers of Exposure to Zearalenone in In Vivo and In Vitro Studies

Abstract

The measurement of human exposure to mycotoxins is necessary for its association with adverse health effects. This exposure is usually estimated from contamination levels of foodstuffs, which are the primary source of toxin exposure, and data on food consumption patterns. However, variations in contamination level, intestinal absorption, toxin distribution, and excretion lead to individual variations in toxin exposure that can be more readily measured with a biomarker. This review deals with the latest literature information about ZEN biomarkers in humans, animals, and cell line cultures. Their presence in urine, biomarkers that have effects in the kidney, liver, reproductive system and blood and biomarkers of cell response have been reported. It has highlighted the importance of determining α-zearalenol and β-zearalenol biomarkers to estimate the probable dietary intake (PDI) of a specific population or to characterize the severity of exposure to ZEN in animals or cell lines. α-ZEL and β-ZEL are cytotoxic by inhibiting cell proliferation, total protein and DNA syntheses, in this sense, an induction of expression proteins Hsp27 and Hsp70 was observed, and an increase in gene expression (TLR4, NF-kBp65, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, MGMT, α-GST, Hsp70, Nrf2, L-Fabp, HO-1, MAPK8), the determination of which indicates an oxidative stress effect. The integrity of the cell or tissue membrane is assessed by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which increase at exposure of ZEN (84.2 µM), and the proportions of some fatty acids of the renal tissue membrane were increased at treatments with ZEN. This review allows starting future studies of animal and population exposure in parallel with those of health effects works.

A Cohort Study Investigating Zearalenone Concentrations and Selected Steroid Levels in Patients with Sigmoid Colorectal Cancer or Colorectal Cancer

“…Zearalenone is also metabolized in the liver, and liver damage is the most common effect of ZEN's toxicity [32]. According to Llorens et al [33], Liu et al [34], and Damiano et al [35], ZEN is capable of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a dose-dependent manner as well as by changing the expression levels of the antioxidant enzymes and genes…”

Toxicity of zearalenone and its nutritional intervention by natural products

“…Ingestion of ZEN can cause various toxic effects, including reproductive toxicity, hepatotoxicity, immunotoxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity. 64 In addition, because there is more Food & Function Review than one mycotoxin, ZEN can play a synergistic, additive, or antagonistic role with other mycotoxins present in food (Fig. 2).…”

Selenium-chitosan alleviates the toxic effects of Zearalenone on antioxidant and immune function in mice

“…The long-term consumption of ZEN-contaminated feed causes declines in growth performance, immunodepression and reproductive dysfunction in livestock and poultry (5)(6)(7). More importantly, when animals eat feed contaminated with ZEN, it remains in the resulting animal products, such as meat, milk and eggs, which can harm human health (2,8). Therefore, how to relieve the toxic effects of ZEN on humans and animals has become a current research hot spot.…”