Toxic effects of zearalenone on oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokines, biochemical and pathological changes induced by this toxin in the kidney of pregnant rats

• Zearalenone induced the biochemical and the oxidative parameters changes.
• Zearalenone increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of TLR4, NF-kBp65 and inflammatory cytokines.
• Zearalenone caused kidney damage in pregnant rats in a dose-dependent manner.

An experiment was conducted to determine the toxic effects of zearalenone (ZEN) on oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokines, biochemical and pathological changes in the kidney of pregnant rats, and to explore the possible mechanism in ZEN induced kidney damage. The rats were fed a normal diet treated with 0.3, 48.5, 97.6 or 146 mg/kg ZEN in feed on gestation days (GDs) 0 through 7, and then all the rats were fed with a normal diet on GDs 8 through 20. The results showed that ZEN induced kidney dysfunction, oxidative damage, pathological changes and increased mRNA and protein expression of TLR4 and inflammatory cytokines in kidney in dose-dependent manner. The results indicated that ZEN caused kidney damage of pregnant rats and TLR4-mediated inflammatory reactions signal pathway was one of the mechanisms of ZEN mediated toxicity in kidney.