Artificial Sweeteners: History and New Concepts on Inflammation

Abigail Raffner Basson; Alexander Rodriguez-Palacios; Fabio Cominelli

doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.746247

Artificial Sweeteners: History and New Concepts on Inflammation

Front Nutr. 2021 Sep 24:8:746247. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.746247. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Abigail Raffner Basson^{1

2}, Alexander Rodriguez-Palacios^{1

2

3

4}, Fabio Cominelli^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, United States.
² Digestive Health Research Institute, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, United States.
³ Mouse Models, Silvio O'Conte Cleveland Digestive Diseases Research Core Center, Cleveland, OH, United States.
⁴ Germ-Free and Gut Microbiome Core, Digestive Health Research Institute, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States.

Abstract

Since the introduction of artificial sweeteners (AS) to the North American market in the 1950s, a growing number of epidemiological and animal studies have suggested that AS may induce changes in gut bacteria and gut wall immune reactivity, which could negatively affect individuals with or susceptible to chronic inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a disorder that has been growing exponentially in westernized countries. This review summarizes the history of current FDA-approved AS and their chemical composition, metabolism, and bacterial utilization, and provides a scoping overview of the disease mechanisms associated with the induction or prevention of inflammation in IBD. We provide a general outlook on areas that have been both largely and scarcely studied, emerging concepts using silica, and describe the effects of AS on acute and chronic forms of intestinal inflammation.

Keywords: Crohn's disease; artificial sweeteners; cytokines; immunoregulation; inflammation; ulcerative colitis.

Publication types

Review