Aflatoxin B1 and its toxic effects on immune response of teleost fishes: a review

Abstract

Aflatoxins represent, among all known mycotoxins, the best characterised and most investigated foodborne contaminants at present. This importance led to early research on acute and chronic toxicity. Further research showed that chronic toxicity due to aflatoxins could cause silent damages, causing the more evident carcinomas, being immunotoxicity one of the first toxicological effects studied on both mammals and aquatic farmed species, such as fishes. Although many of the aflatoxin immunotoxicity scientific information has been generated a quarter of century ago, the recent role of innate immune system on aquatic species still demands for up-to-date results, and expresses that the research on immunotoxicity caused by aflatoxins is yet to be completed. Based on these considerations, the aims of this review are to collect existing data on toxic effects on immune response of teleost fishes due to aflatoxins that could give us a perspective for the follow up research, and to gain new insights on the importance caused by the consumption of aflatoxin contaminated fish through the trophic chain.