Aflatoxin effects with liquid crystalline cholesteryl esters of duckling sera.
An objective of this study was to determine indicator parameters of blood sera that are symptomatic for degenerative hepatic cholesterogenesis and lipid transformations induced with carcinogenic mycotoxins. A technique was developed for electrophoretic separation of liquid crystalline cholesteryl esters within beta lipoprotein fractions of duckling sera. These birefringent moieties decreased to 110 mug/mg low-density lipoprotein during 10-day bioassay periods for normal, nontoxin fed ducklings, but remained unchanged--179-189 mug/mg-for toxin-fed principals ingesting 0.988 mug aflatoxin/g feed throughout the bioassays. Their composition was principally cholesteryl esters with liquid crystalline characteristics determined by the oleate and linoleate content. Increased cholesterol levels--11.4% to 17.1% within sera of the nontoxin group--resulted in more frequent spherulitic mesoforms. The 0.9% to 1.8% taurochenodesoxycholate content within all sera samples induced stable cubic liquid crystalline forms. With polarized microscopy, cholesteric anisotrophs of sera were unique in composition and iridescent visage for each aflatoxin level regime. This specific dicroism was correlated with the corresponding hepatic histology.