Deoxynivalenol (DON) or vomitoxin, is a trichothecene mycotoxin produced mainly by Fusarium graminearum and culmorum. Mycotoxins or secondary metabolic products of mold fungi are micro-pollutants, which may affect human and animal health. The neuronal and behavioural actions of DON were analysed in the present study. To address, which neurons can be affected by DON, the neuronal activation pattern following intraperitoneal injection of DON (1 mg/kg) was investigated in adult male rats and the results were confirmed in mice, too. DON-induced neuronal activation was assessed by c-Fos immunohistochemistry. DON injection resulted in profound c-Fos activation in only the elements of the reward system, such as the accumbens nucleus, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the ventral tegmental area. Further double labelling studies suggested that GABAergic neurons were activated by DON treatment. To study the behavioural relevance of this activation, we examined the effect of DON on feed intake as an example of reward-driven behaviours. Following DON injection, feed consumption was markedly reduced but returned to normal the following day suggesting an inhibitory action of DON on feed intake without forming taste-aversion. To further test how general the effect of DON on goal-directed behaviours is, its actions on maternal behaviour was also examined. Pup retrieval latencies were markedly increased by DON administration, and DON-treated mother rats spent less time with nursing suggesting reduced maternal motivation. In a supplementary control experiment, DON did not induce conditioned place preference arguing against its addictive or aversive actions. The results imply that acute uptake of the mycotoxin DON can influence the reward circuit of the brain and exert inhibitory actions on goal-directed, reward-driven behaviours. In addition, the results also suggest that DON exposure of mothers may have specific implications.

脱氧雪腐烯酚（DON）或呕吐毒素是主要由禾谷镰刀菌（Fusarium graminearum）和鳞茎霉菌产生的单端孢霉菌真菌毒素。霉菌的真菌毒素或次级代谢产物是微量污染物，可能会影响人类和动物的健康。在本研究中分析了DON的神经元和行为作用。为了解决哪些神经元可能受到DON的影响，研究了成年雄性大鼠腹膜内注射DON（1 mg / kg）后的神经元激活模式，并且在小鼠中也证实了这一结果。DON诱导的神经元活化通过c-Fos免疫组织化学评估。DON注射仅在奖励系统的各个要素（例如伏隔核，前额内侧皮层和腹侧被盖区域）中导致了深刻的c-Fos激活。进一步的双重标记研究表明，DON处理可激活GABA能神经元。要研究这种激活的行为相关性，我们研究了DON对饲料摄入量的影响，以此作为奖励驱动行为的一个例子。DON注射后，饲料消耗显着减少，但第二天恢复正常，这表明DON对饲料摄入具有抑制作用，而不会形成反感。为了进一步测试DON对目标导向行为的影响有多普遍，还研究了DON对孕产妇行为的作用。DON的给药显着增加了幼崽的潜伏期，并且用DON治疗的母鼠在护理上的时间更少，这表明母体的动力降低了。在补充性对照实验中，DON没有引起针对其上瘾或厌恶行为的条件性场所偏爱。结果表明，真菌毒素DON的急性摄入会影响大脑的奖赏回路，并对目标导向的奖赏驱动的行为施加抑制作用。此外，结果还表明，母亲暴露于DON可能具有特定的含义。