Assessment of deoxynivalenol metabolite profiles in UK adults

Abstract Deoxynivalenol (DON) requires no activation for toxicity, though susceptibility may reflect individual variations in detoxification. This study reports the measurement of un-metabolised urinary DON (free DON) and DOM-1 in samples previously analysed for the combined measure of free DON + DON-glucuronide (fD + DG), with a concentration >5 ng/ml, for 34 UK adults. Four consecutive daily urine samples were analysed from twenty-two individuals, whilst from 12 individuals only a single sample was analysed. The mean (median) concentration of urinary fD + DG in this sub-set was 17.8 ng/ml (13.8 ng/ml), range 5.0–78.2 ng/ml. In 23/34 (68%) individuals, free DON was detected, mean 2.4 ng/ml; range 0.5–9.3 ng/ml. Urinary DOM-1 was detected in 1/34 (3%) of individuals; present at ∼1% of urinary fD + DG concentration for that individual. The concentration of fD + DG combined was significantly correlated with urinary free DON ( p R 2  = 0.65), but not with the percentage of free DON to fD + DG ( p  = 0.615, R 2  = 0.01), suggesting that the level of DON exposure did not affect the metabolism to DG within the range observed. In this survey most individuals had no detectable urinary DOM-1 and 68% did not detoxify all of the ingested DON to DON-glucuronide. This study needs to be extended to understand whether the fD / DG ratio provides a phenotypic measure of DON susceptibility.