The Effect of Patulin on Femoral Bone Structure in Male Rabbits

A lot of kinds of crops are susceptible to fungal attack, leading to considerable financial losses and damage the health of humans and animals. Patulin, a toxic fungal metabolite, can be found mainly in apple and apple products, with much less frequent contamination in other food products. Because of its high incidence and harmful health effects, patulin belongs to a class of mycotoxins, which are strictly monitored. However, its effect on bone structure is still unknown. This study was designed to investigate the impact of patulin on femoral bone structure in adult male rabbits. Four month-old male rabbits were randomly divided into two groups of three animals each. Rabbits from the experimental group (group A, n=3) were intramuscularly administered with patulin at dose 10 μg.kg -1 body weight (b.w.) twice a week for 4 weeks. The second group without patulin administration served as a control (group B, n=3). At the end of the experiment, body weight, femoral weight and length, cortical bone thickness and histological structure of femoral bones from all rabbits were determined. The results did not show any significant differences in body weight, femoral weight and length between experimental and control groups of rabbits. On the other hand, intramuscular application of patulin induced a significant increase in cortical bone thickness (p <0.05) and considerable changes in qualitative histological characteristics of compact bone in adult male rabbits. In patulin-intoxicated males, the primary vascular longitudinal bone tissue was absent near endosteal border. On the other hand, this tissue occurred near periosteum and also in the middle part of the femoral bone in these rabbits. The values for the primary osteons’ vascular canals were significantly lower (p <0.05) in males exposed to patulin as compared to the control group. Based on these findings we can conclude that intramuscular patulin administration demonstrably influences cortical bone thickness and histological structure of femoral bone in adult male rabbits.