Effect of different sweeteners on the oral microbiota and immune system of Sprague Dawley rats

Can Song,Feihong Huang,Hui Lei,Quan Zhou,Xi Cheng,Xiurong Guo

doi:10.1186/s13568-020-01171-8

Can Song, Feihong Huang + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13568-020-01171-8

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Journal: AMB Express	Publication Date: Jan 6, 2021
Citations: 6	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Southwest Medical University

Abstract

Sucrose, xylose, and saccharin are commonly used beverage additives and long-term consumption of these compounds inevitably affects the oral immune system and the composition of oral microbiomes. In this study, we used 24 Sprague Dawley rats divided into four groups, i.e., sucrose, saccharin, xylose, or pure water treated over an eight week period to evaluate any changes in the composition, community structure, and function of the oral microbiomes. At the end of the treatment period, we collected oral microbiome samples from each animal and subjected them to high-throughput sequencing. We also used ELISA to determine the concentration of salivary immunoglobulin in these rats to reveal the effect of sweetener on the oral immune system. Sequencing results demonstrated that Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, remained the predominant phyla, but we found that the oral microbial diversity of rats drinking sucrose water was significantly higher than that of the other groups. Our results indicate that drinking water supplemented with sweeteners may influence oral immunity as well as the composition, metabolic function, and diversity of the oral microbiota, thereby disrupting the oral microbiome.

Highlights

The oral microbiota is an essential component of human health, with changes in this microbiome potentially altering immune function, food metabolism, and colonization by potentially pathogenic microbes (Dewhirst et al 2010)
Discussion xylose and saccharin have long been considered safe, research on the intestinal microbiome suggests that their long-term use may cause glucose intolerance and interfere with the body’s energy homeostasis (Gerasimidis et al 2020)
We found that there were changes in the composition of the microbiome in animals treated with these compounds at the phylum level, with the abundance of Proteobacteria increasing significantly in the saccharin group, and that of Actinobacteria increasing in the xylose group compared with that in the control

Summary

Introduction

The oral microbiota is an essential component of human health, with changes in this microbiome potentially altering immune function, food metabolism, and colonization by potentially pathogenic microbes (Dewhirst et al 2010). Changes in the oral microbiota may have unpredictable effects on host health. Xylose, and saccharin are common beverage additives with these sweeteners, irrespective of their type, inevitably affecting the delicate balance within the oral microbiota (Wade 2013). Many studies have focused on the effects of sweeteners on the intestinal microbiota (Suez et al 2014), but little attention has been paid to the oral microbiome. Previous research into the effects of sweeteners on the human microbiota have primarily focused on the gut with relatively few studies evaluating the oral microbiome in any detail. Relatively few studies have compared the effects of sucrose and other sweeteners on the oral microbiota.

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