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.

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Dietrich B, Neuenschwander S, Bucher B, Wenk C