Abstract
α-Chaconine is the most abundant glycoalkaloid in potato and toxic to the animal digestive system, but the mechanisms underlying the toxicity are unclear. In this study, mouse small intestinal epithelial cells were incubated with α-chaconine at 0, 0.4, and 0.8 μg/mL for 24, 48, and 72 h to examine apoptosis, mechanical barrier function, and antioxidant ability of the cells using a cell metabolic activity assay, flow cytometry, Western blot, immunofluorescence, and fluorescence quantitative PCR. The results showed that α-chaconine significantly decreased cell proliferation rate, increased apoptosis rate, decreased transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) value, and increased alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities, and there were interactions between α-chaconine concentration and incubation time. α-Chaconine significantly reduced the relative and mRNA expressions of genes coding tight junction proteins zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and occludin, increased malondialdehyde (MDA) content, decreased total glutathione (T-GSH) content, reduced the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-GCS) and the mRNA expressions of SOD, CAT, GSH-Px, and γ-GCS genes. In conclusion, α-chaconine disrupts the cell cycle, destroys the mechanical barrier and permeability of mucosal epithelium, inhibits cell proliferation, and accelerates cell apoptosis.
Highlights
Potato is a major crop used as food, animal feed, and industrial raw materials and is grown in about 80% of the countries in the world (Ahmad et al, 2019)
The results showed that α-chaconine significantly decreased cell proliferation rate, increased apoptosis rate, decreased transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) value, and increased alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities, and there were interactions between α-chaconine concentration and incubation time. α-Chaconine significantly reduced the relative and mRNA expressions of genes coding tight junction proteins zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and occludin, increased malondialdehyde (MDA) content, decreased total glutathione (T-GSH) content, reduced the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-GCS) and the mRNA expressions of SOD, CAT, GSH-Px, and γ-GCS genes
The results obtained in this study showed that the MTT value of the cells decreased with the increase of αchaconine concentration and the prolongation of incubation time, suggesting that α-chaconine leads to damage to cell morphology, a reduction in cell viability, and to cytotoxicity
Summary
Potato is a major crop used as food, animal feed, and industrial raw materials and is grown in about 80% of the countries in the world (Ahmad et al, 2019). The content of glycoalkaloids is especially high when exposed to light or to high temperatures during storage (Machado et al, 2007; Shepherd et al, 2016). Glycoalkaloids are α-Chaconine Affects Small Intestinal Cells resistant to high temperatures and are difficult to remove or destroy (Liu et al, 2020). Crop breeders are making progresses in reducing the content of glycoalkaloids through molecular breeding (Yasumoto et al, 2019), this is a long-term goal, and glycoalkaloids are still an important factor affecting the utilization of potatoes and their by-products. There are six main types of glycoalkaloids in potatoes, of which α-solanine and α-chaconine are the most abundant (Milner et al, 2011), accounting for 95% of the total content (Nielsen et al, 2020), with α-chaconine being the most abundant (Rytel, 2012; TajnerCzopek et al, 2012). The ratio of α-solanine to α-chaconine is approximately 1:2 to 1:7 (Skarkova et al, 2008). α-Chaconine is a cyclopentane phenanthrene compound (Oda et al, 2002), which links the nitrogen-containing steroid group with 1–4 monosaccharides through a 3-O-glycosidic bond. α-Chaconine includes one molecule of D-glucose and two molecules of L-rhamnose (Figure 1)
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