Systemic E. coli lipopolysaccharide but not deoxynivalenol results in transient leukopenia and diminished metabolic activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells ex vivo

The mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are reported to act synergistically in the animal organism. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that systemic co-exposure of DON and LPS aggravates the impact of the individual toxin on leukocyte counts in vivo and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) ex vivo. Growing barrows were fed a standard diet, equipped with permanent venous catheters and infused for 1 h with one of four treatments: control group with physiological saline (CON, n = 8), mycotoxin group (DON, n = 6) with 100 μg/kg body weight (BW) deoxynivalenol, endotoxin group (LPS, n = 6) with 7.5 μg/kg BW Escherichia coli LPS, and co-exposed group (DON + LPS, n = 6) with 100 μg/kg BW DON and 7.5 μg/kg BW LPS. Blood was collected 30 min prior to infusion and 10, 20, 30, 60, 360, 720 and 1440 min after start of infusion for total and differential leukocyte counts. PBMC were isolated from blood drawn at 3 and 24 h and subjected to an ex vivo 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, either non-stimulated or stimulated with concanavalin A. LPS induced a transient significant leukopenia between 30 and 360 min, owing to a decrease in segmented neutrophils and lymphocytes (time × treatment: p < 0.001). Metabolic activity of stimulated PBMC ex vivo was severely compromised in pigs 3 h after LPS exposure (<50 % of control, p < 0.001), but already regained 80 % of its activity at 24 h, thus showing no difference between treatments. DON alone did not affect leukocytes in vivo or PBMC activity ex vivo and neither aggravated the effect of LPS.