EFFECT OF LONG -TERM CONSUMPTION OF SUCROSE, ASPARTAME AND STEVIA SWEETENERS ON HIPPOCAMPUS ANTIOXIDANT DEFENSE STATUS
Nashwa A. El –Shinnawy*, Samira A Abd-Elmageid and Aisha M. Saber
ABSTRACT
Stevia leaf extract has the potential to be used as a non-caloric natural sweetener instead of the synthetic sweetener aspartame due to its antioxidant potency in controlling free radicals with resultant health benefits on brain hippocampus. In addition, stevia has no serious toxic effects making it a perfect sugar non caloric substitute. For this purpose, male albino rats were divided into four groups, control group receiving drinking water, sucrose group receiving 10% sucrose solution, aspartame group receiving a dose of 75 mg aspartame/kg body weight /day and stevia group receiving a dose of 40 mg/kg body weight /day. The results of this study revealed that long term supplementation of sucrose and aspartame to rats produced a significant decrease in total antioxidant, glutathione, Na+-K+ ATPase and total protein of hippocampus tissue. This was accompanied by significant decrease in serum creatine kinase–brain type after 90 days of either sucrose or aspartame supplementation. On the other hand, hippocampus catalase, malondialdehyde, nitric oxide elucidated a significant increase in their mean values in either sucrose or aspartame groups compared to the control group. Moreover, long term sucrose and aspartame consumption activated the immune-expressions of Caspase 3 and Bax protein in hippocampus tissue. Stevia leaf extract supplementation to experimental animals verified near to normal control results in all the investigated parameters. Additionally, stevia has no serious genotoxic effects making it a perfect sugar non-calorie substitute. So, it could be used as antioxidant agent for controlling free radicals in many neurodegenerative diseases.
Keywords: Hippocampus, Sucrose, Aspartame, Stevia.
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