New Insights Into the Persistent Effects of Acute Exposure to AFB1 on Rat Liver

Abstract

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) has mutagenesis, carcinogenesis and teratogenesis effects and mainly found in food crops and their processed foods. AFB1 exposure can cause acute or chronic liver poisoning, but there were few studies on the persistent effects of acute AFB1 exposure on the liver. In this study, rat liver injury models were established 2 and 7 days after single exposure to high and low doses of AFB1. The persistent effects of AFB1 single acute exposure (ASAE) on rat liver were analyzed from the phenotypic and genetic levels. The results showed that compared with the control group, liver function indexes, MDA content in liver and the number of apoptotic hepatocytes in model groups increased to the highest on the 2nd day after ASAE (p < 0.001). However, the changes of liver coefficient were most significant on the 7th day after ASAE (p < 0.01). The results of liver pathology showed that the liver injury was not alleviated and the activities of antioxidant enzymes GSH-Px and SOD were the lowest on the 7th day (p < 0.001). RNA-Seq results indicated that there were 236, 33, 679, and 78 significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the model groups (LA-2d, LA-7d, HA-2d, HA-7d) compared with the control group. Among them, the Gtse1 gene related to the proliferation, differentiation and metastasis of liver cancer cells, the Lama5 and Fabp4 gene related to the inflammatory response were significantly DEGs in the four model groups, and the differential expression of the immune system-related Bcl6 gene increased with the prolonged observation time after ASAE. In conclusion, ASAE can cause persistent liver damage in rats. The persistently affected genes Lama5, Gtse1, Fabp4, and Bcl6 possess the potential to be therapeutic targets for liver disease induced by AFB1.

COS Attenuates AFB1-Induced Liver Injury in Medaka through Inhibition of Histopathological Damage and Oxidative Stress

“…In fact, the high concentration of COS interventions was almost as potent as the liver protector SIL. AST and ALT are frequently used tests to determine whether the liver injury has occurred [27], it is obvious that AFB 1 caused irreversible damage to the liver function of the medaka after intraperitoneal injection, and the results of this experiment are similar to those of other papers on AFB 1 -induced liver injury [28].…”

Intervention mechanism of marine-based chito-oligosaccharide on acute liver injury induced by AFB1 in rats

“…At the same time, different intake times and doses of AFB 1 can cause acute or chronic liver poisoning. In this paper, the AFB 1 dose of 1 mg/kg BW was determined on the basis of existing studies, and the equivalent human dose was calculated based on the body surface area conversion factor (Yan et al 2022 ; Reagan-Shaw et al 2008 ). The result showed that the human intake of AFB 1 was 0.21 mg/kg, which was lower than the LD50 of AFB 1 .…”