The enteric nerve system as target of regulated and emerging food-associated mycotoxins.

Abstract

Food and feed are frequently contaminated by numerous regulated and emerging mycotoxins. Humans and animals are thus exposed daily to mycotoxins through the oral route making of the gut the first and the more exposed tissue. Although many studies have evaluated and demonstrated the impact of mycotoxins on the intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and on the brain cells, surprisingly only few studies have investigated their impact on cells of the enteric nerve system (ENS). In the present work, we measured the impact of major regulated and emerging mycotoxins (18 mycotoxins in total) on the proliferation and viability of normal rat enteric glial cells (EGCs) in vitro. On the 18 mycotoxins tested, 12 were found toxic with anti-proliferative and/or cytotoxic effects observed at doses ranging from 0.19 to 118 µ M and 0.4 to 59.59 µ M, respectively. It can be concluded that alterations of the EGCs caused by at least some mycotoxins may participate in their global impact on the gut and the full organism.