Changes in leukocytes populations related to commercial sucralose intake

Abstract

The food industry currently uses different compounds to satisfy the palatability of food without providing calories, including non‐nutritive sweeteners such as sucralose. The consumption of sucralose has increased in the last few years, not only in patients with obesity or type 2 diabetes, but also in the general population. Since sweeteners are designed to give flavor without providing calories, it is conceivable these compounds might also affect cellular metabolism. The immune system is the main defense of the organism and requires energy to perform its functions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine changes in leucocytes populations in spleen, thymus and lymphatic nodes in mice that consumed commercial sucralose for a prolonged period of time. 14 week‐old BALB/c mice consumed ad libitum commercial sucralose in daily water for 6 weeks. After treatment, leukocytes from the selected organs were harvested and the subpopulations were analyzed by flow cytometry using the surface markers CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19 and CD16. Our preliminary results show no differences between leukocyte subpopulations in the spleen. We found an increase in the number of both CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes in the thymus in the sucralose group. Finally, we observed an increase in the number of NK cells in the lymph nodes in the same group. Our results suggest that chronic consumption of commercial sucralose may affect leukocyte subpopulations in the thymus and lymph nodes; however, further work is necessary to determine the effect of chronic sweetener intake on the activation capacity and effector functions of these cells.