Histological study of reproductive organs in albino rats treated with Aspartame

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to know the effect of the sweetener aspartame on the histological
structure of the reproductive organs .
Methodology: the current study was conducted on 30 pregnant female rats, who were given oral doses of
aspartame at a concentration of (8 mg/kg) starting from the zero day of the females’ pregnancy until after
birth. After that, the newborns (male and female) were separated from their mothers they were divided in
to 3 equal groups, the G1: was considered a control group. The G2: included only male who were given
oral doses of aspartame at a concentration of (8 mg/kg). the G3: included only female who were given oral
doses of aspartame at a concentration of (8 mg/kg). each group ware dosed until reached puberty. after that
the animals were sacrificed and the histological sections of the ovary and testis tissue were made .
Results: the histological sections results for testis tissue showed many changes where they included the
appearance of destruction of sperm- producing cells, intratubular hemorrhage, degeneration of sperm-
producing cells, seminiferous tubule atrophy, low sperms and scatter of sperm- producing cells., there were
also changes in the histological composition of the ovary tissue represented by absence of most stages of
ovarian follicle development, abundance atretic follicle, pulp tissue distraction, corpus luteum with
granulocytes and occur bleeding in it and ovarian tissue destruction.
conclusion
Our study showed that the sweetener aspartame causes significant damage to the tissue structure of the
reproductive organs in both the ovaries and testes after long-term consumption it .