Ochratoxin A content of urine samples of healthy humans in Hungary

Abstract

The ochratoxin A (OTA) content of urine samples from 88 healthy humans living at five settlements in three counties of Hungary was determined by immunoaffinity column cleanup and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). OTA was detected in 61% of the samples in an average concentration of 0.013 ng/ml (range: 0.006-0.065 ng/ml). OTA concentrations measured in urine samples from men and women were not significantly different. The OTA concentration of samples from Heves county was significantly (t-test; p < 0.003) higher than that of samples from Hajdú-Bihar and Somogy counties. The regional differences in OTA concentration of urine samples indicate regional differences in the OTA exposure of the human population. Further studies are necessary to determine the cause of the regional differences in the OTA intake. The studies allow us to conclude that the OTA intake of the majority of the Hungarian population is low (< 1 ng/kg of body weight per day) but a certain part of the rural population may take up higher levels of OTA.

Multimycotoxin analysis in urines to assess infant exposure: A case study in Cameroon

“…Comparing our results with other studies from different populations, in terms of contamination levels; the mean concentration detected in this study; 0.2 ng/mL are higher than the mean concentration detected in Hungary; 0.013 ng/mL (Fazekas et al, 2005), Italy; 0.02 ng/mL (Pena et al, 2006), Bulgaria; 0.05 ng/mL and 0.168 ng/mL (Petkova-Bocharova et al, 2003) but lower than those detected in Croatia; 2.3 ng/mL (Domijan et al, 2003). The highest concentration of OTA reported so far in human urine was detected in Sierra Leone with a range of 0.07-148 ng/mL (no mean was reported) (Jonsyn, 2000).…”

Ochratoxin A and Human Health Risk: A Review of the Evidence

“…OTA has been suspected as a cause of various human nephropathies since the 1970s including Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN) (Barnes et al, 1977; Castegnaro et al, 2006; Elling and Krogh, 1977; Pfohl-Leszkowicz et al, 2002; Sattler et al, 1977) and chronic interstitial nephropathy (CIN) (Abid et al, 2003). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified OTA as a Group 2B possible human carcinogen, based on demonstrated carcinogenicity in animal studies (Fazekas et al, 2005; IARC, 1993), although OTA-related carcinogenicity has not been conclusively determined in humans. A recent risk assessment on OTA (Haighton et al, 2012) states that OTA was negative in genotoxicity assays with high specificity, and that OTA-DNA adduct levels were low and not typical of genotoxic carcinogens.…”

Ochratoxin A levels in the plasma of healthy blood donors from Valencia and estimation of exposure degree: comparison with previous national Spanish data

“…The metabolism in humans is basically produced through cytochrome P-450 (Dortant et al, 2001) generating less toxic metabolites (Fazecas et al, 2005) which are eliminated in urine and faeces (Li et al, 2000(Li et al, , 1997. OTA can cross the placenta and is also excreted in animal milk (Valenta and Goll, 1996;BreitholtzEmanuelsson et al, 1993 Leitner et al, 2002;Medina el al.…”