Zearalenone is a contaminant in food and feed products. It has been reported that zearalenone could lead to serious damage to health. So far, it is unclear whether zearalenone could lead to cardiovascular aging–related injury. For this, we assessed the effect of zearalenone on cardiovascular aging. Cardiomyocyte cell lines and primary coronary endothelial cells were used as two cell models in vitro experiments, and Western-blot, indirect immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry were performed to study the effect of zearalenone on cardiovascular aging. Experimental results indicated zearalenone treatment increased Sa-β-gal positive cell ratio, and the expression of senescence markers (p16 and p21) was significantly upregulated. Additionally zearalenone upregulated the inflammation and oxidative stress in cardiovascular cells. Furthermore, the effect of zearalenone on cardiovascular aging was also evaluated in vivo, and the results indicated that zearalenone treatment also led to the aging of myocardial tissue. These findings suggest that zearalenone could lead to cardiovascular aging-related injury. Furthermore, we also preliminarily explored the potential effect of zeaxanthin (which is a powerful antioxidant) on zearalenone-caused aging-related damage in vitro cell model, and found that zeaxanthin could alleviate zearalenone-induced aging-related damage. Collectively, the most important finding of the current work is that zearalenone could lead to cardiovascular aging. Next in importance, we also found that zeaxanthin could partially alleviate zearalenone-induced cardiovascular aging in vitro, indicating that zeaxanthin can be used as a drug or functional food to treat cardiovascular damage caused by zearalenone.

玉米赤霉烯酮是食品和饲料产品中的污染物。据报道，玉米赤霉烯酮可能对健康造成严重损害。到目前为止，尚不清楚玉米赤霉烯酮是否会导致与心血管老化相关的损伤。为此，我们评估了玉米赤霉烯酮对心血管衰老的影响。体外实验以心肌细胞系和原代冠状动脉内皮细胞作为两种细胞模型，通过Western-blot、间接免疫荧光和流式细胞术研究玉米赤霉烯酮对心血管衰老的影响。实验结果表明，玉米赤霉烯酮处理增加了 Sa-β-gal 阳性细胞比例，并且衰老标志物（p16 和 p21）的表达显着上调。此外，玉米赤霉烯酮上调心血管细胞的炎症和氧化应激。此外，玉米赤霉烯酮对心血管老化的影响也在体内进行了评估，结果表明玉米赤霉烯酮处理也导致了心肌组织的老化。这些发现表明玉米赤霉烯酮可能导致与心血管老化相关的损伤。此外，我们还在体外细胞模型中初步探索了玉米黄质（一种强大的抗氧化剂）对玉米赤霉烯酮引起的衰老相关损伤的潜在影响，发现玉米黄质可以减轻玉米赤霉烯酮引起的衰老相关损伤。总的来说，当前工作最重要的发现是玉米赤霉烯酮可能导致心血管老化。其次重要的是，我们还发现玉米黄质可以在体外部分缓解玉米赤霉烯酮诱导的心血管老化，