Interaction of 14C-labelled fumonisin B mycotoxins with primary rat hepatocyte cultures

An in vitro study on the interaction and biotransformation of the [14C]fumonisin B mycotoxins was conducted, using primary rat hepatocyte cultures and subcellular enzyme preparations. At the same concentration, fumonisin B2 (FB2) exhibited a higher cytotoxicity and specific binding to primary rat hepatocytes than fumonisin B1 (FB1). However, if the effective dose level (EDL) is considered (i.e. the lowest level of toxin that binds to the hepatocytes to elicit a cytotoxic effect), FB1 and FB2 exhibited a similar cytotoxic effect. FB1 was found to be associated with both the soluble and insoluble compartments within the cell. As assessed by the radioactivity associated with the cellular preparations, very little (approximately 0.01%) FB1 and/or FB2 bound to hepatocytes. In the subsequent fractionation of the culture medium using amberlite XAD-2 and silica-gel chromatography, no metabolites were detected, indicating that the fumonisin molecule was not metabolized by primary hepatocytes. The latter aspect was confirmed by the fact that incubation of FB1 with microsomal enzyme preparations also failed to indicate any metabolism of the fumonisins by the esterases or by cytochrome P-450 monooxygenase. FB1 was also found not to be a substrate for the triglyceride hepatic endothelial lipase, nor for a lipase from porcine pancreas. This study supports further the hypothesis that the intact molecule of the fumonisins is required for biological activity.