Therapeutic Effects of Glutamic Acid in Piglets Challenged with Deoxynivalenol

Abstract

The mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), one of the most common food contaminants, primarily targets the gastrointestinal tract to affect animal and human health. This study was conducted to examine the protective function of glutamic acid on intestinal injury and oxidative stress caused by DON in piglets. Twenty-eight piglets were assigned randomly into 4 dietary treatments (7 pigs/treatment): 1) uncontaminated control diet (NC), 2) NC+DON at 4 mg/kg (DON), 3) NC+2% glutamic acid (GLU), and 4) NC+2% glutamic acid + DON at 4 mg/kg (DG). At day 15, 30 and 37, blood samples were collected to determine serum concentrations of CAT (catalase), T-AOC (total antioxidant capacity), H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), NO (nitric oxide), MDA (maleic dialdehyde), DAO (diamine oxidase) and D-lactate. Intestinal morphology, and the activation of Akt/mTOR/4EBP1 signal pathway, as well as the concentrations of H2O2, MDA, and DAO in kidney, liver and small intestine, were analyzed at day 37. Results showed that DON significantly (P<0.05) induced oxidative stress in piglets, while this stress was remarkably reduced with glutamic acid supplementation according to the change of oxidative parameters in blood and tissues. Meanwhile, DON caused obvious intestinal injury from microscopic observations and permeability indicators, which was alleviated by glutamic acid supplementation. Moreover, the inhibition of DON on Akt/mTOR/4EBP1 signal pathway was reduced by glutamic acid supplementation. Collectively, these data suggest that glutamic acid may be a useful nutritional regulator for DON-induced damage manifested as oxidative stress, intestinal injury and signaling inhibition.

Hepatotoxic effects of mycotoxin combinations in mice

“…These results are in agreement with previous studies that suggested that oxidative stress may be owing to the direct effect of these mycotoxins, their metabolites and/or the generated free radicals (Abdel-Wahhab et al, 2010;Kanbur et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2014). Strikingly, the combined AFB1 + DON presented a synergetic effect on MDA, while AFB1 + ZEA presented antagonistic effects on both T-AOC and MDA, respectively.…”

Effectiveness of activated carbon and Egyptian montmorillonite in the protection against deoxynivalenol-induced cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in rats

“…In the current study, the hepatotoxicity of DON was manifested by the significant increase of serum ALT, AST and ALP activity which consider good indicators of hepatic injury (Kasmani et al, 2012) and suggested that DON disturbed the cell membrane resulting in the leakage of these enzymes in serum . These results are similar to the previous studies which provided evidence that DON induced liver injury (Jiang et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2013) and suggested that oxidative stress induced by the mycotoxin or its metabolites has a direct effect on hepatic cell membrane Kanbur et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2014;Sun et al, 2014).…”

Chronic ingestion of deoxynivalenol‐contaminated diet dose‐dependently decreases the area of myenteric neurons and gliocytes of rats

“…Osselaere et al verified that this mycotoxin causes oxidative stress in the small intestine of chicken after exposure to DON at 7.54 mg kg −1 . Wu et al demonstrated, in swine, that the ingestion of chow contaminated with 4 mg kg −1 of DON causes evident oxidative stress. In this way, the effects of DON on the formation of free radicals and on anti‐oxidant defenses depend on dose and length of exposure.…”