Influence of Deoxynivalenol-contaminated diet on the liver gene expression of chicken.

The mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) is a secondary metabolite from Fusarium species and is frequently present on wheat and other cereals. The main effects of DON are a reduction of the feed intake and reduced weight gain of broilers. At the molecular level DON binds to the 60S ribosomal subunit and inhibits subsequently protein synthesis at the translational level. It has been suggested that cells and tissues with high protein turnover rate, like the liver and small intestine, are most affected by DON. However, little is known about other effects of DON e.g. at the transcriptional level. Therefore we decided to perform a microarray analysis, which allows us the investigation of thousands of transcripts in one experiment. The one-day old broiler chicks were separated into four groups. The diets consisted of a control diet and of three diets with moderate concentrations of 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mg DON/kg feed, which was attained by exchanging uncontaminated wheat with naturally DON-contaminated wheat up to the intended concentration. The chicken were held at standard conditions for 23 days and received their diet ad libitum. After slaughter the gene expression was determined in the liver of three samples per group.