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This article brings an overview of mycotoxin co-occurrence in foods in Croatia and neighbouring countries and experimental data from mycotoxin interaction studies involving Fusarium toxins, ochratoxin A (OTA), and aflatoxin B(1) (AFB(1)). Only a few studies of combined mycotoxin toxicity have employed a mathematical/ statistical design, while others have used common statistics in order to compare the effects of mycotoxin mixtures with effects of single toxins. So far, most studies have observed additive or synergistic effects, suggesting that these mixtures pose a significant threat to human and animal health.

The main goal of this study was to test the usefulness of the Comet assay in the PLHC-1 hepatoma fish cell line as a tool for detecting the presence of genotoxic compounds in contaminated marine sediments. The system has been tested using both model chemicals (benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)) and extracts of sediment samples obtained with solvent dichloromethane/methanol. For all of the analysed sediment extracts as well as for the model chemicals a concentration dependent genotoxic effect was observed. The sediment with the highest observed genotoxic potential was additionally extracted using various solvents in order to test which class of compounds, according to their polarity, is most responsible for the observed genotoxic effect. Non-polar solvents (cyclohexane and dichloromethane) yielded stronger genotoxic effect but the highest level of DNA damage was determined after exposure to sediment extract obtained with the solvent mixture dichloromethane/methanol which extracts a wide range of contaminants. Our results indicate that the PLHC-1 cell line is a suitable in vitro model in sediment genotoxicity assessment and encourage the use of fish cell lines as versatile tools in ecogenotoxicology., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)