Fumonisins (FBs) are widespread Fusarium toxins commonly found as corn contaminants. FBs could cause a variety of diseases in animals and humans, such as hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic, hepatocarcinogenic and cytotoxic effects in mammals. To date, almost no review has addressed the toxicity of FBs in relation to oxidative stress and their metabolism. The focus of this article is primarily intended to summarize the progress in research associated with oxidative stress as a plausible mechanism for FB-induced toxicity as well as the metabolism. The present review showed that studies have been carried out over the last three decades to elucidate the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress as a result of FBs treatment and have correlated them with various types of FBs toxicity, indicating that oxidative stress plays critical roles in the toxicity of FBs. The major metabolic pathways of FBs are hydrolysis, acylation and transamination. Ceramide synthase, carboxylesterase FumD and aminotransferase FumI could degrade FB1 and FB2. The cecal microbiota of pigs and alkaline processing such as nixtamalization can also transform FB1 into metabolites. Most of the metabolites of FB1 were less toxic than FB1, except its partial (pHFB1) metabolites. Further understanding of the role of oxidative stress in FB-induced toxicity will throw new light on the use of antioxidants, scavengers of ROS, as well as on the blind spots of metabolism and the metabolizing enzymes of FBs. The present review might contribute to reveal the toxicity of FBs and help to protect against their oxidative damage.

Center for Basic and Applied Research Faculty of Informatics and Management University of Hradec Kralove Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

College of Life Science Yangtze University Jingzhou China

Departamento de Toxicología y Farmacología Facultad de Veterinaria Universidad Complutense de Madrid 28040 Madrid Spain

Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Animal Nutrition and Feed Safety Wuhan Hubei China

MOA Laboratory for Risk Assessment of Quality and Safety of Livestock and Poultry Products Huazhong Agricultural University Wuhan 430070 Hubei China

National Reference Laboratory of Veterinary Drug Residues and MAO Key Laboratory for Detection of Veterinary Drug Residues Huazhong Agricultural University Wuhan 430070 Hubei China

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Toxic metabolites, MAPK and Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathways involved in oxidative toxicity in mice liver after chronic exposure to Mequindox