TITLE:
Acute Impact of Artificial Sweetener, Aspartame on Blood Parameter in Mice
AUTHORS:
Ayoub A. Bazzaz, Norah S. Al-Johani
KEYWORDS:
Acute Effects, Aspartame, Blood Parameters, Mice, CBC
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.9 No.10,
October
31,
2018
ABSTRACT: Aspartame (APM) or L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl
ester, a common artificial non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute
in many foods and beverages, has shown some side effects on consumers. The
objective of the present study is to study the acute impact of various doses of
daily ingestion of APM on blood parameters of mice. Sixty healthy 3 months old
male mice raised in the departmental animal
house were divided into five groups i.e. the control were fed normal diet and tap water, while other 4 groups (12 each)
were daily orally fed with 1 mL of either 40, 500, 1000 or 1500 mg/Kg b wt,
dissolved in distilled water using gavages for consecutive 5 weeks. Fresh blood
samples collected directly from the heart at dissection were subjected to complete
blood counting (CBC) using automated blood analyzer (Cell DYN-1700) in addition to manual differential Leucocytes (WBC)
counting. There has been a significant increase (p ≤ 0.01) in WBC counts starting from the lowest dose
(40 mg/Kg·b·wt);
significant decrease (p ≤ 0.01) in
both Hemoglobin percentages (Hb%) and in Lymphocyte percentages (p ≤ 0.004) in comparison with control. It is concluded
that the ingestion of aspartame using the above doses has acute impact and is
not dose-dependent on blood parameters which could exert further, on the long
run, health risks on to other tissues of consumers.