International collaboration in mycotoxin research in the university

Abstract

In the last decade, the author has strived to develop the international collaboration in research for food safety including that for mycotoxins, using fellowship programs for overseas students and grants for scientific research managed by JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) and the Ministry of Education,Culture, Spoets, Science and Technology. We studied the fate and metabolism of mycotoxins in animal body as one of our cooperative studies with foreign researchers and students. We showed characteristic features of distribution of nivalenol and fusarenon-X in mice and poultry, including the transfer of the toxins from mother to fetus or suckling pups. Also the importance of glutathione-S transferase toward aflatoxin-epoxide in species difference of susceptibility to aflatoxin. These findings have been published in toxicology and other journals, hoping to be utilized effective for the development of technology to prevent health hazards by mycotoxins.