Cytotoxicity of Fusarium mycotoxins to mammalian cell cultures as determined by the MTT bioassay

Fusarium mycotoxins occur worldwide in cereal grains and animal feeds and cause outbreaks of Fusarium mycotoxicoses in humans and animals. In this study mammalian cell cultures were used to screen the cytotoxicity of the most common Fusarium mycotoxins; deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN), fumonisin B1 (FB1) and moniliformin (MON). The most sensitive cell line for each Fusarium mycotoxin was determined for further toxicological investigations as an alternative to whole animal testing. Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO-K1) were found to be the most sensitive for DON and FB1 with IC50 values of 0.27 and 85.5 μg/ml, respectively, after 48-h exposure. The hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) showed the highest sensitivity to MON with IC50 values of 39.5 for 48 h and 26.8 μg/ml for 72-h exposure. Balb/c mice keratinocyte cell line (C5-O) was found to be the most sensitive to ZEN with IC50 of 24.1 μg/ml after 72-h exposure. DON was found the most cytotoxic to the cell cultures of all the mycotoxins tested, followed by MON, ZEN, and FB1. The results indicated that CHO-K1, C5-O, and HepG2 cells were found to be the sensitive cell lines for preliminary screening of DON, ZEN and MON contaminated feed and food extracts, respectively.