During a population survey of toxic fungi in foodstuffs, two strains of highly toxic fungi and nine strains of mildly toxic fungi were detected. Toxic metabolites of these 11 strains of fungi were administrated subcutaneously to male mice weighing 15-18g, respectively, and seven days after the single administration, experimental animals were killed and histopathological observations of various organs were carried out.
The nature and the degree of the induced histopathological changes of various organs of mice were throughly investigated and described. Hepatic injuries, e. g., irregularity of the nuclear size of hepatic cells, occasional mitotic figures, and inflammatory changes were commonly recognized as an induced pathologic change by all fungal toxic metabolites used in this study, however, the hepatic changes seemed to be nonspecific reactions. The most conspicuous hepatic injuries were noticed in mice administered toxic metabolites of the Penicillium islandicum. Nephrotoxity of the Penicillium islandicum, and neurotoxity of the Penicillium decumbens and the Penicillium cyclopium were indicated.
As it has been demonstrated in the previous toxicity study, it was noteworthy that even with toxic metabolites obtained from the same fungus, different methods of obtaining the toxic metabolites caused a different pathological effect. Individual differences in susceptibility among experimental animals to the fungal toxic metabolites were also observed.
