Journal
TOXINS
Volume 11, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/toxins11100561
Keywords
zearalenone; low doses; steroid hormones; biotransformation; pre-pubertal gilts
Categories
Funding
- Healthy Animal - Safe Food Scientific Consortium of the Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education [05-1/KNOW2/2015]
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Zearalenone (ZEN) is a mycotoxin that not only binds to estrogen receptors, but also interacts with steroidogenic enzymes and acts as an endocrine disruptor. The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis that low doses, minimal anticipated biological effect level (MABEL), no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) and lowest-adverse-effect level (LOAEL), of ZEN administered orally for 42 days can induce changes in the peripheral blood concentrations of selected steroid hormones (estradiol, progesterone and testosterone) in pre-pubertal gilts. The experiment was performed on 60 clinically healthy gilts with average BW of 14.5 +/- 2 kg, divided into three experimental groups and a control group. Group ZEN5 animals were orally administered ZEN at 5 mu g ZEN/kg BW, group ZEN10 - at 10 mu g ZEN/kg BW, group ZEN15 - at 15 mu g ZEN/kg BW, whereas group C received a placebo. Five gilts from every group were euthanized on analytical dates 1, 2 and 3 (days 7, 14 and 42 of the experiment). Qualitative and quantitative changes in the biotransformation of low ZEN doses were observed. These processes were least pronounced in group ZEN5 (MABEL dose) where ZEN metabolites were not detected on the first analytical date, and where beta-ZEL was the predominant metabolite on successive dates. The above was accompanied by an increase in the concentration of estradiol (E-2) which, together with free ZEN, probably suppressed progesterone (P-4) and testosterone (T) levels.
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