AN INVESTIGATION OF MECHANISM OF AMPICOGULANT ACTION OF AFLATOXIN IN SOME ANIMAL SPECIES

Abstract

It has been reported that aflatoxin B₁ isolated from foodstuff contaminated with a toxin strain of Aspergillus Flavus produces in rats a lesion similar to the “sweet clover disease”. Biochemical, Kinetic and microscopic evidence has been produced to show that aflatoxin lengthens blood clothing time in rat in a way similar to 4-hydroxyeoumarin. “In vitro” experiments with liver slices confirm that the inhibition of the synthesis of blood clothing factors by aflatoxin is a result of competition with vitamin K for the apoenayse involved in the production of prothrombin in the liver. When the interaction of aflatoxin with blood clothing enzymes is compared with that of carbon tetrachloride (a known hepatocarcinogen) and of 4-hydroxyeoumarin it is found that aflatoxin dececreases the level of prothrombin in a way similar to 4-hydroxyeoumarin and unlike carbon tetrachloride. Sensitive hepatic function tests followed by light and electron microscopy found that at the time when aflatoxin structure lengthened blood clothing time maximally, the entire ultra-structure of the parenchymal cell was intact.