Aspartame

Eur. J. Oncol., vol. 10, n. 2, pp. 00-00, 2005

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Original studies/Studi originali General topics/Argomenti generali

Aspartame induces lymphomas and leukaemias in rats a L’aspartame induce linfomi e leucemie nei ratti
Morando Soffritti, Fiorella Belpoggi, Davide Degli Esposti, Luca Lambertini
Cancer Research Centre, European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and EnvironmentalSciences, Bologna, Italy

Summary Aspartame, a widely used artificial sweetener, was administered with feed to male and female SpragueDawley rats (100-150/sex/group), 8 weeks-old at the start of the experiment, at concentrations of 100,000; 50,000; 10,000; 2,000; 400; 80 and 0 ppm. Treatment lasted until spontaneous death of the animals. In this report we present the first results showing thataspartame, in our experimental conditions, causes a statistically significant, dose-related increase in lymphomas and leukaemias in females. No statistically significant increase in malignant brain tumours was observed among animals from the treated groups as compared to controls. Eur. J. Oncol., 10 (2), 00-00, 2005

Riassunto L’aspartame, un dolcificante artificiale largamente diffuso, è statosomministrato con il mangime a ratti Sprague-Dawley, maschi e femmine (100-150/sesso/ gruppo), di 8 settimane di età all’inizio dell’esperimento, a concentrazioni di 100.000; 50.000; 10.000; 2.000; 400; 80 e 0 ppm. Il trattamento è durato fino alla morte spontanea degli animali. In questo articolo vengono presentati i primi risultati che dimostrano come l’aspartame, nelle nostre condizionisperimentali, causa un incremento statisticamente significativo, dose-correlato, di linfomi e leucemie nelle femmine. Nei gruppi trattati rispetto al controllo non è stato osservato nessun aumento statisticamente significativo dei tumori maligni del cervello. Eur. J. Oncol., 10 (2), 00-00, 2005 Parole chiave: aspartame, dolcificante artificiale, cancerogenesi, ratti, linfoma, leucemia

Key words: aspartame,artificial sweetener, carcinogenesis, rats, lymphoma, leukaemia

Introduction Aspartame (APM) is a widely used artificial sweetener consumed by hundreds of millions of people around the world1, 2. It is found in more than 6,000 products, including soft drinks, chewing gum, candy, yoghurt, table-

top sweeteners and some pharmaceuticals such as vitamins and sugar-free cough drops2. Dietarysurveys, performed among APM consumers, have shown that the average APM daily intake in the general population ranged from 2 to 3 mg/kg b.w. and was even more in children and pregnant women1. The Accept-

Received/Pervenuto 15.3.2005 - Accepted/Accettato 11.4.2005 Address/Indirizzo: Dr. Morando Soffritti, Centro di Ricerca sul Cancro, Fondazione Europea di Oncologia e Scienze Ambientali “B.Ramazzini”, Castello di Bentivoglio, 40010 Bentivoglio (BO), Italia - Tel. +39/051/6640460 - Fax +39/051/6640223 - E-mail: crcfr@ramazzini.it
a

Research supported by European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy

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M. Soffritti, F. Belpoggi, D. Degli Esposti, et al.

able Daily Intake (ADI) both in the US and in Europe is 50 and 40 mg/kg b.w.,respectively1. In rodents and humans, APM is metabolised in the gastrointestinal tract into three constituents: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol3. Three long-term feeding carcinogenicity bioassays on APM were performed on rats, and one on mice, during the 1970s. Overall, the carcinogenicity studies were considered negative4, but it must be noted that these studies did not comply with thebasic requirements which must nowadays be met when testing the carcinogenicity potential of a chemical or physical agent. Because of these limitations, we decided to perform a mega-experiment following the currently accepted Good Laboratory Practices. In the present paper we are reporting our first results on the incidence of haemolymphoreticular malignancies (lymphomas and leukaemias) and...