In vivo effects of zearalenone on the expression of proteins involved in the detoxification of rat xenobiotics.

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a lactone derivative of the resorcylic acid produced by various Fusarium species that are widely found in foods and animal feeds. ZEN exerts species-specific estrogenic effects, possibly because of the metabolism differences arising from reduction, hydroxylation, or glucuro-conjugation. The main objective of this study was to determine the levels of expression of rat proteins that are involved in the ZEN detoxification pathway upon acute ZEN treatment.

Development of a new HPLC method used for determination of zearalenone and its metabolites in broiler samples. Influence of zearalenone on the nutritional properties of broiler meat.

This paper presents the development, optimization and validation of a new HPLC method used for the separation and determination of zearalenone, ZON, and its metabolites in biological samples of Leghorn broiler. ZON and its metabolites can be separated with good resolution in 11 min, using a Hypersil Gold C18 column, a mobile phase mixture of 50 mM aqueous ammonium acetate:acetonitrile:methanol, 45:8:47 (v/v/v), flow rate 1 mL/min and column temperature 40 degrees C. Based on the results obtained by this method applied on biological samples one can conclude that liver is the site for zearalenone localization and detoxification.

In vitro cytochrome p450 formation of a mono-hydroxylated metabolite of zearalenone exhibiting estrogenic activities: possible occurrence of this metabolite in vivo.

The mycoestrogen zearalenone (ZEN), as well as its reduced metabolites, which belong to the endocrine disruptor bio-molecule family, are substrates for various enzymes involved in steroid metabolism. In addition to its reduction by the steroid dehydrogenase pathway, ZEN also interacts with hepatic detoxification enzymes, which convert it into hydroxylated metabolites (OH-ZEN). Due to their structures to that of estradiol, ZEN and its derived metabolites bind to the estrogen receptors and are involved in endocrinal perturbations and are possibly associated with estrogen-dependent cancers.