Mold Toxin and Pig Liver
Like I said, Cheney has already discussed this extensively. The agents he's identified for shifting the TH1/TH2 balance are Kutapressin, Isoprinosine, pine cone extract, heparin, some kinds of transfer factor, and some other peptide product called lumbricus. If you know of any others, please let us know, as most of those either are difficult to obtain (kutapressin, heparin) or not readily available anymore (pine cone extract - though one could make one's own, perhaps). regards
Kutapressin is made out of pig liver. And since pig liver comes up as really bad on Cheney's Echo Terrain Mapping machine (which he uses to gauge the positive or negative effects of various substances), I suspect that he's not recommending Kutapressin any more.
Buffalo liver comes up as one of the more positive substances on the machine. This suggests that CFS sufferers do indeed need liver support, and that it's something about pig's liver in particular that's bad.
A number of studies (below) have implicated the susceptibility of pigs' livers to trichothecene mold toxins. The grain and other foods that pigs eat often are contaminated with these mold toxins, and pigs' livers apparently don't handle them very well.
Buffalo, on the other hand, eat free-range grass. Mold contamination assumedly would not be an issue with that.
If I am correct in my contention that CFS sufferers are hypersensitive to toxic mold, it would make sense that they would react poorly to it wherever it is found....including the remnants of it in pigs' liver products.
To my knowledge, no one has attempted to take a mold-contaminated object to Dr. Cheney's office to see how that would affect them on the ETM machine. It would be interesting to see how that experiment would come out.
I'm willing to place a sizable bet that an item that was really contaminated would create the biggest negative energy backflash of anything that's ever been recorded on that machine of his. Would anyone like to take me up on it?
Best, Lisa
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Dll S, Schrickx JA, Dnicke S, Fink-Gremmels J. Interactions of deoxynivalenol and lipopolysaccharides on cytokine excretion and mRNA expression in porcine hepatocytes and Kupffer cell enriched hepatocyte cultures. Toxicol Lett. 2009 Oct 8;190(1):96-105. PMID: 19607891
The effects of deoxynivalenol (DON) on the mRNA expression of cytokines and inflammation-related genes, as well as the cytokine secretion of porcine hepatocytes and Kupffer cell enriched hepatocyte cultures (co-cultures), were investigated in the absence or presence of LPS.
DON and LPS acted in a synergistic manner with regard to a significantly increased mRNA expression of TNF-alpha in hepatocytes exposed to 500 nM or 2000 nM DON, or non-significant increase in co-cultures after 3h of exposure.
TNF-alpha supernatant concentrations were increased due to LPS but did not reflect the synergistic effects with DON as observed at mRNA level.
IL-6 mRNA in hepatocyte cultures at 6h paralleled the TNF-alpha supernatant pattern at this time point. In co-cultures and hepatocytes, a DON dose dependent induction of IL-6 mRNA was detected in cells not exposed to LPS. Supernatant concentrations of LPS-induced IL-6 were significantly decreased by 2000 nM DON in both types of cell cultures. Also the mRNA expression of the anti-inflammatory IL-10 was increased by DON to various degrees depending on DON-dose, stimulation with LPS and time point of measurement. After 6h, expression of iNOS was only induced by 2000 nM DON, but not in LPS treated cells.
Even if mRNA induction was not paralleled by related supernatant concentrations of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-10 under the conditions of the present investigations, it was clearly demonstrated that DON has the potential to provoke and modulate immunological reactions of porcine liver cells.
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Mikami O, Yamamoto S, Yamanaka N, Nakajima Y. Porcine hepatocyte apoptosis and reduction of albumin secretion induced by deoxynivalenol. Toxicology. 2004 Nov 15;204(2-3):241-9. PMID: 15388250
Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the major mycotoxic contaminants of grains, which causes reduced weight gain in pigs.
The cytotoxicity of DON to porcine hepatocytes was examined in this study.
These results indicate that DON induced apoptosis through the caspase-3 activation pathway and caused functional disorder in porcine hepatocytes.
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Meissonnier GM, Laffitte J, Raymond I, Benoit E, Cossalter AM, Pinton P, Bertin G, Oswald IP, Galtier P. Subclinical doses of T-2 toxin impair acquired immune response and liver cytochrome P450 in pigs. Toxicology. 2008 May 2;247(1):46-54. PMID: 18355953
This study was designed to investigate the effect of subclinical doses of T-2 toxin on liver drug-metabolizing enzymes and the immune response.
Pigs fed 1324 or 2102microg T-2toxin/kg feed exhibited reduced anti-ovalbumin antibody production without significant alteration to specific lymphocyte proliferation.
The livers of pigs exposed to T-2 toxin presented normal cytochrome P450 content, UGT 1A and P450 2B, 2C or 3A protein expression, and glutathione- and UDP glucuronosyl-transferase activities.
However, P450 1A related activities (ethoxyresorufin O-deethylation and benzo-(a)-pyrene hydroxylation) were reduced for all pigs given T-2 toxin, with P450 1A protein expression decreased in pigs fed the highest dose. In addition T-2 toxin exposure reduced certain N-demethylase activities.
The results of this study confirm the immunotoxic properties of T-2 toxin, in particular toward the humoral immune response.
The reduction of monooxygenase activities, even though the liver presented no tissue lesion or lipid peroxidation, suggests possible deleterious interactions of T-2 toxin with these enzymes.
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Pestka JJ, Smolinski AT. Deoxynivalenol: toxicology and potential effects on humans. J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev. 2005 Jan-Feb;8(1):39-69. PMID: 15762554
At the molecular level, DON disrupts normal cell function by inhibiting protein synthesis via binding to the ribosome and by activating critical cellular kinases involved in signal transduction related to proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis.
Relative to toxicity, there are marked species differences, with the pig being most sensitive to DON, followed by rodent > dog > cat > poultry > ruminants.
Chinese epidemiological studies suggest that DON may also produce emetic effects in humans.
With respect to chronic effects, growth (anorexia and decreased nutritional efficiency), immune function, (enhancement and suppression), and reproduction (reduced litter size) are also adversely affected by DON in animals, whereas incidence of neoplasia is not affected.