Protective Effects of Octyl Gallate Against Deoxynivalenol-Induced Colon Inflammation: Insights from Proteomic and Metabolomic Analyses

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and octyl gallate (OG) are prevalent compounds in the environment and food. DON is frequently detected in cereals such as corn and wheat, while OG is commonly employed as a food additive. As a result, human exposure to these substances is inevitable. Given this, the objective of this experiment was to investigate the impact of co-exposure to DON (10 μg/kg) and OG (10 μg/kg) on intestinal inflammation. The RAW264.7 macrophage cell line was utilized to analyze cytokine levels as well as proteomic and metabolomic changes. In the quantitative real-time PCR experiments, the DON group showed significant difference compared to the control group (* p < 0.05) and the DON-OG group (# p < 0.05) regarding cytokine levels such as IL-10, TNF-α, Il6, Il1b, Ccl2, Il12α, Nos2, Cxcl1, and Cxcl2. In the animal experiment, C57BL/6 mice were utilized to monitor body weight, the presence of bloody stools, and diarrhea. Additionally, the colonic tissues of the mice underwent pathological analysis. The results indicated that cells treated with both DON and OG displayed lower levels of inflammation compared to those treated with DON alone. Furthermore, proteomic and metabolomic analyses revealed that the regulation of the Lancl2 protein and the mTOR signaling pathway contributed to the milder inflammatory response observed in the DON-OG group. These findings were further corroborated by the pathological analysis of the colonic tissues from the mice. In the combined exposure of DON and OG, OG partially mitigated the intestinal inflammation induced by DON.