Toxicology and safety evaluation of seleninm-enriched probiotics

摘要

Selenium-enriched probiotics comprise several probiotics strains,which are grownwith Se under the proper environmental conditions in the appropriate growth media to allow forefficient conversion of inorganic Se into an organic form. Thus,it can exert dual effects of organicSe and probiotics at the same time. Therefore,the selenium-enriched probiotics has the potential fordevelopment and application in food systems or functional foods. Here,selenium-enrichedprobiotics was subjected to a series of toxicological tests to evaluate its safety. It was examined toevaluate oral acute toxicity and accumulative toxicity by using Kun-Ming mice and mutagenicpotential by reverse mutation test using Salmonella typhimurium,bone marrow cell micronucleustest using Kun-Ming mice and sperm abnormality test also using Kun-Ming mice. In addition,a30-day oral toxicity study using Sprague-Dawley rats was conducted to evaluate subchronictoxicology.The results showed that the oral LD50 of selenium-enriched probiotics was 18.49 g/kgbody weight in mice. The selenium-enriched probiotics had moderately accumulative toxicity (thecoefficient of accumulation was 4.3) to mice at a total dose of approximate 3950 g/kg during 18days. It had no mutagenicity judged by negative experimental results of Ames test,mouse bonemarrow cell micronucleus test and mouse sperm abnormality test. Administration at levels of 0.12,0.23 and 0.46g/kg per day to the rats for 30 days did not induce significant hematological,clinic,chemical and histopathological changes. These results indicate that selenium-enriched probiotics issafe at the dose of daily-recommended consumption and has the potential for development andapplication in food systems or functional foods.