Differential organ responses to Fumonisins in rabbits: kidney, liver and spleen membrane fatty acid composition, oxidation markers and histopathology

Omeralfaroug Ali^1*Edward Agyarko²Zsolt GERENCSÉR2 Gerencsér³Krisztián Balogh⁴Miklós Mézes⁴Melinda Kovács^2,5Mohamed Maki⁶Noureddine Besselma⁷Haruna Gado Yakubu⁸András SZABÓ1 Szabó^2,5

• ¹Department of Physiology and Animal Health, Institute of Physiology and Animal Nutrition, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
• ²Institute of Physiology and Animal Nutrition, Department of Animal Physiology and Health, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Kaposvár, Hungary
• ³Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Kaposvár, Hungary
• ⁴Department of Feed Safety, Institute of Physiology and Nutrition, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
• ⁵HUN-REN-MATE Mycotoxins in the Food Chain Research Group, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Kaposvár, Hungary
• ⁶Department of Biochemistry and Medical Chemistry, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
• ⁷Agri-Food and Environmental Microbiology Platform (PiMiAA), Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
• ⁸Department of Animal Science, School of Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

The study assessed the kidney, liver, and spleen of adult male rabbits (n = 10/group) in relation to fumonisin B series exposure (10 and 20 mg FB1+FB2+FB3/kg feed) over a period of 65 days. The rabbit growth and feed intake remained unaffected; meanwhile, kidney and liver weights increased. The highest dose provided greater alterations in total phospholipid fatty acid profiles, particularly in the kidney (C20:5n3 and C18:0) and spleen (C18:1n7, C22:0, C20:4n6, and C20:5n3) than in the liver. Neither the kidneys nor the spleens demonstrated modifications in their antioxidant (glutathione and glutathione peroxidase) and lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde) markers; however, there was a marked drop in the liver glutathione concentration and glutathione peroxidase of the group that administered 20 mg FBs/kg diet, while liver malondialdehyde levels remained unchanged. Serum clinical measures revealed elevated creatinine, total cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins, and gamma-glutamyl transferase activity at the highest FBs dose. Histological scores revealed mild nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity in the 20 mg FBs/kg group, accompanied by a mild to moderate lesion score in the spleen. Overall, FBs exposure elicited diverse organspecific adverse effects, with severity increasing at higher doses. Despite these alterations, rabbits demonstrated adaptability to FBs over the study period, as indicated by steady growth performance.