Abstract

Zearalenone (ZEA) contamination is a very serious problem around the world as it can induce reproductive disorders in animals and affect the health of humans. Therefore, reducing the damage it causes to humans and animals is a current focus of research. In this study, we assess the removing capacity of Pediococcus pentosaceus xy46 towards ZEA and investigate the mechanism responsible for its action, thus confirming if it can alleviate ZEA toxicity to the reproductive systems of male mice. Our results show that the rate at which the strain removes ZEA is as high as 89.2% in 48 h when the concentration of ZEA is 4 μg/mL in the liquid medium. Heat and acid treatment significantly enhanced the ability of the bacteria to remove ZEA. The animal experiments results show that the oral administration of xy46 to mice (0.2 mL daily at a concentration of 109 CFU/mL for 28 days) significantly reduces the degree of testicular pathomorphological changes and apoptosis induced by ZEA when the mice are intragastric administration with 40 mg/kg ZEA daily for 28 days. Moreover, oral administration of xy46 enhances the decrease in the testosterone level and improves the oxidative stress injury induced by ZEA. Furthermore, oral administration of xy46 reverts the expression of these genes and proteins in the testicular tissues of the mice involved in the blood–testis barrier and apoptosis (e.g., Vim, caspase 12, Cldn11, N-cad, Bax, and Bcl-2). However, xy46 cannot significantly revert in some of these evaluated parameters, especially in sperm quantity and quality when the mice were given 70 mg/kg ZEA daily for 28 days. In conclusion, our results suggest that the strain Pediococcus pentosaceus xy46 can efficiently remove ZEA from the liquid medium, the mechanism responsible for its action is absorption, and it can alleviate the toxicity of ZEA to the reproductive systems of male mice when the mice are given 40 mg/kg ZEA daily, However, it cannot completely alleviate the reproductive toxicity of higher dosage of zearalenone through its ability to adsorb ZEA.

Highlights

  • Mycotoxin contamination is a significant food safety issue around the world

  • ZEA mainly damages the reproductive systems of animals, which causes a decline in livestock and poultry production, resulting in serious economic losses [5,6,7,8]

  • The peak in the xy46 + ZEA group is about 10 times smaller than that in the ZEA group, which indicates that the P. pentosaceus xy46 strain has a good ability to absorb ZEA

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Summary

Introduction

Mycotoxin contamination is a significant food safety issue around the world. Zearalenone (ZEA) is one of the most prevalent and well-known of these mycotoxins and has estrogen-like effects [1,2,3,4]. Studies generally used physical and chemical methods to relieve or attenuate ZEA’s toxicity [11,12,13]. Such strategies may be aggressive for the environment and significantly change the nutritional value of the feed during the detoxification process. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which are generally recognized to be safe by the Food and Drug Administration, can inhibit the expansion of Gram-negative pathogens and have a wide range of beneficial effects on host metabolism [25].

Materials and Methods
The Ability of Pediococcus pentosaceus xy46 to Remove Zearalenone
Determination of the Removing Mechanism
Methods
Animals
Experimental Work
Semen Quality Tests
Testosterone Levels
Antioxidant Stress Index
2.11. TUNEL Staining
2.12. Gene Expression
2.13. Western Blot Analyses
2.14. Statistical Analyses
Ability of xy46 to Remove ZEA
Removing Mechanism
Pathological Tissue Sections
Conclusions
Full Text
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