Acute Impact of Artificial Sweetener, Aspartame on Blood Parameter in Mice

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.