Efficiency of Deoxynivalenol Detoxification by Microencapsulated Sodium Metabisulfite Assessed via an In Vitro Bioassay Based on Intestinal Porcine Epithelial Cells

[Image: see text] Deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination occurs in feeds and causes a reduction in growth performance, damage to the intestinal epithelial cells, and increased susceptibility to enteric pathogen challenge. Sodium metabisulfite (SMBS) has shown promise in reducing DON; however, SMBS quickly degrades under aqueous acidic conditions such as the environment within a stomach. Thus, protection of SMBS is required for effective delivery to the small intestine to detoxify DON. This study was to encapsulate SMBS into hydrogenated palm oil-based microparticles for its delivery to the small intestine and to evaluate its efficacy on DON detoxification in simulated intestinal fluids using IPEC-J2 cells in vitro. The diameter of the SMBS containing microparticles was 511 ± 135 μm, and the loading capacity of SMBS in the microparticles was 45.50%; 1.41% of the encapsulated SMBS (ES) was released into the simulated gastric fluid, and 66.39% of ES was progressively released into the simulated intestinal fluid within 4 h at 37 °C. In IPEC-J2 cells, when DON was treated with the simulated gastric fluid containing 0.5% ES for 2 h, then mixed with the simulated intestinal fluid (1:1) and incubated for 2 h, cytotoxicity was not observed. DON treated with 0.5 ES decreased the gene expression of inflammatory cytokines in the cells compared with DON alone and maintained the cell integrity. To conclude, the SMBS containing microparticles were stable in the simulated gastric fluid and allowed a progressive release of SMBS in the simulated intestinal fluid. The released SMBS in the simulated intestinal fluid effectively detoxified DON.