Levels of ochratoxin A in serum from urban and rural Portuguese populations and estimation of exposure degree

Abstract

Urban and rural population exposure to ochratoxin A (OTA) in central zone of Portugal was investigated in three places: Coimbra, Verride and Ereira. The analytical method proposed for the determination of ochratoxin A involved extraction with chloroform-orthophosphoric acid, cleanup through an immunoaffinity column (IAC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with spectrofluorimetric detection (FD) for separation and identification of ochratoxin A, and confirmation with HPLC-FD after OTA methylation in serum. The limit of quantification of the proposed method was 0.1 microg/L for serum and 0.05 microg/L for blood. OTA recoveries in serum ranged from 70.3% to 115.3% for levels at 0.25 microg/L and 0.5 microg/L, respectively, with a within-day RSD between 8.0% and 16.2%. Ochratoxin A serum levels were evaluated in an hundred and four donors from Coimbra city, Verride, and Ereira. The study revealed a frequency of detection of 100%. The ratio of ochratoxin A level in serum to whole blood was 2.0+/-0.7. The overall concentrations range from 0.25 to 2.49 microg/L, 0.14 to 1.91 microg/L, and 0.19 to 0.96 microg/L, for samples of Verride, Ereira, and Coimbra, respectively. The mean concentration and standard deviation were 0.78+/-0.53 microg/L, 0.44+/-0.31 microg/L, and 0.42+/-0.18 microg/L for the same samples. A significant difference was found in Verride population (P-value=0.000). Levels of OTA are clearly higher in males from rural areas than in females. For all samples, a significant difference was found in Verride male population (P-value=0.014).

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

“…Comparing our results with others from different countries, the obtained levels in plasma samples of healthy blood donors from the Valencian Community are similar to samples from Canada, United Kingdom (0.88 and 1.09 respectively), lower than values reported in Tunisia and Denmark (Hald, 1991;Hassen et al, 2004 ) and higher than levels reported in other countries as Italy, Morocco, Lebanon, Croatia, Sweden, Poland and Portugal (Assaf et al, 2004;Brera et al, 1999;Fillali et al, 2002;Hald, 1991;Lino et al, 2008;Peraica et al, 1999Peraica et al, , 2001Thuvander et al, 2001). al., 1998), whereas the limit of detection of Burdaspal and Legarda (1998) was 0.020 µg OTA/l and in this study was 0.010 µg OTA/l of blood plasma.…”

“…In the literature, frequencies between 6.6% and 100% of samples with presence of OTA have been reported and explanations for these differences have been found in the different LOD and LOQ as well (Lino et al, 2008;Jimenez et al, 1998;Thuvander et al, 2001). …”

“…However it is impossible to compare and discuss it because diet parameters of the analysed subjects were not studied in the other studies carried out in Spain or data used have been extracted from literature (Coronel et al, 2009). (Peraica et al, 2001;Muñoz et al, 2006;Lino et al, 2008).…”

Aspectos relacionados à presença de fungos toxigênicos em uvas e ocratoxina A em vinhos

“…A OTA foi encontrada em sangue humano em todos os países onde foi investigada, frequentemente em alta incidência, como, por exemplo, em Portugal (LINO et al, 2008), na Tunísia (HASSEN et al, 2004), na Costa do Marfim (SANGARE-TIGORI et al, 2006), na Noruega e na Suíça (THUVANDER et al, 2001). A principal preocupação, contudo, nos níveis em que é normalmente detectada no sangue das populações, deve-se a suas propriedades imunotóxicas, pois a OTA apresenta esse efeito em concentrações da ordem de ng mL -1 (LINO et al, 2008 A maioria dos investigadores tem constatado dois fatos.…”

“…A principal preocupação, contudo, nos níveis em que é normalmente detectada no sangue das populações, deve-se a suas propriedades imunotóxicas, pois a OTA apresenta esse efeito em concentrações da ordem de ng mL -1 (LINO et al, 2008 A maioria dos investigadores tem constatado dois fatos. Em primeiro lugar, constatou-se que as estirpes do agregado A. niger são mais abundantes nas uvas que A. carbonarius.…”