Effects induced in vitro by aflatoxin B1 on Vibrio fischeri and primary cultures of Sparus aurata hepatocytes

Abstract

Aflatoxins are one of the most widespread and worrisome sources of feed contamination worldwide, and have a considerable impact on fish farm production, leading to high mortality and a gradual decline in fish stock quality in aquaculture. In this study, we investigated, for the first time, the effects induced in vitro by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on Sparus aurata hepatocyte culture and we compared our results with the Microtox® system using Vibrio fischeri. At AFB1 doses ranging from 1 to 10 μg·mL−1, the results showed signs of primary necrotic cell death in hepatocytes and a very toxic evaluation with Microtox®; between 0.005 and 1 μg·mL−1, the cytotoxic effects and apoptotic delayed death in eukaryotic cells corresponded with an evaluation of no toxicity or biostimulatory effect using V. fischeri. Overall, our results highlighted equivalent toxic responses and overlapped with values of EC50/IC50. Hence, these two in vitro systems could be considered as a useful starting point in the design of new batteries to evaluate the toxicity of potentially dangerous feed-borne substances.