Effect of Fusarium Mycotoxin Zearalenone on Gut Epithelium

In the present study, in vitro experiments were conducted to evaluate the changes produced by fusariotoxin,Zearalenone (ZEA), on global gene expression in human intestinal epithelial cells (Caco2), knowing that theintestine is the first organ exposed and affected by the mycotoxin ingestion during an oral intoxication. Caco2cells were treated with 10μM of ZEA for 24 hours and the changes in global genes expression was investigated bymicroarray and analysed by using Gene Spring GX v.11.5 software. Our results showed that ZEA at the concentrationof 10μM did not affect the cell viability but, the microarray analyses revealed that this mycotoxin was able toinduced significant changes in genes expression profile in Caco2 cells in comparison with control cells. The upregulationgene expression was the most common effect produced by ZEA in Caco2 cells after 24h of exposure to10μM of ZEA. Microarray analyses identified 377 genes differentially regulated of which 11 genes were downregulatedand 319 up-regulated with a fold change ≥ 2. ZEA was also able to increase the expression of certaincytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and IFN- γ) involved in inflammation, signalling molecules (ERK1, ERK2, JNK1, JNK2,p38-α) and nuclear receptors (NF-kB and PPAR-γ), which control the immune functions. Together all these resultssuggest that zearalenone is a genotoxic mycotoxin able to induced alterations in a significant number of genesinvolved in different molecular and functional processes at intestinal level.