Bovine Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Are More Sensitive to Deoxynivalenol Than Those Derived from Poultry and Swine

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most prevalent mycotoxins, contaminating cereals and cereal-derived products. Its derivative deepoxy-deoxynivalenol (DOM-1) is produced by certain bacteria, which either occur naturally or are supplemented in feed additive. DON-induced impairments in protein synthesis are particularly problematic for highly proliferating immune cells. This study provides the first comparison of the effects of DON and DOM-1 on the concanavalin A-induced proliferation of porcine, chicken, and bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Therefore, isolated PBMCs were treated with DON (0.01-3.37 mu M) and DOM-1 (1.39-357 mu M) separately, and proliferation was measured using a bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) assay. Although pigs are considered highly sensitive to DON, the present study revealed a substantially higher sensitivity of bovine (IC50 = 0.314 mu M) PBMCs compared to chicken (IC50 = 0.691 mu M) and porcine (IC50 = 0.693 mu M) PBMCs. Analyses on the proliferation of bovine T-cell subsets showed that all major subsets, namely, CD4(+), CD8(+), and T cells, were affected to a similar extent. In contrast, DOM-1 did not affect bovine PBMCs, but reduced the proliferation of chicken and porcine PBMCs at the highest tested concentration (357 mu M). Results confirm the necessity of feed additives containing DON-to-DOM-1-transforming bacteria and highlights species-specific differences in the DON sensitivity of immune cells.