Does aflatoxin as an environmental mycotoxin adversely affect the renal and hepatic functions of Egyptian lactating mothers and their infants? A preliminary report.

BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Aflatoxin as a mycotoxin constitutes a real human threat. Its presence in human milk was previously reported in different countries. This work is the first Egyptian report that aimed to assess the presence of aflatoxin in both mothers' milk and the infants' sera and studied its correlation with infants' kidney functions. METHODS: Fifty healthy breast lactating mothers and their infants who were exclusively breast fed for at least 4 months were included. All of them were subjected to thorough laboratory evaluation including determination of aflatoxin concentration by high performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS: Twenty-four mothers (48%) and their infants had been contaminated with aflatoxin with the following mean contamination levels (ng/ml); mothers' serum of 8.9+/-4.2, mothers' milk of 1.9+/-0.6 and infants' serum of 1.8+/-0.9. The presence of this contamination level is not associated with renal or hepatic dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Mothers and their infants in our locality showed a relatively high aflatoxin contamination rate. We did not find a correlation of this contamination level and either renal or hepatic dysfunction.