Primary Impacts of the Fungal Toxin Sporidesmin on HepG2 Cells: Altered Cell Adhesion without Oxidative Stress or Cell Death

The fungal metabolite sporidesmin is responsible for severe necrotizing inflammation of biliary tract and liver of livestock grazing on pasture containing spores of Pithomyces chartarum that synthesizes the toxin. The toxin is secreted into bile causing the erosion of the biliary epithelium accompanied by inflammation and damage to surrounding tissues. Toxicity has been suggested to be due to cycles of reduction and oxidation of sporidesmin leading to oxidative damage from the formation of reactive oxygen species. The current work is the first test of the oxidative stress hypothesis using cultured cells. Oxidative stress could not be detected in HepG2 cells incubated with sporidesmin using a dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate assay or by use of two-dimensional electrophoresis to search for oxidized peroxiredoxins. There was also no evidence for necrosis or apoptosis, although there was a loss of cell adhesion that was accompanied by the disruption of intracellular actin microfilaments that have known roles in cell adhesion. The results are consistent with a model in which altered contact between cells in situ leads to altered permeability and subsequent inflammation and necrosis, potentially from the leakage of toxic bile into surrounding tissues. There is now a need for the further characterization of the damage processes in vivo, including the investigation of altered permeability and mechanisms of cell death in the biliary tract and other affected organs.