Possible Histological Changes in the pancreas of Female Albino Rats for Prolonged Administration of Aspartame

Abstract

Aspartame sweetener was noted to be inducing histopathological changes on the pancreatic tissue of female albino rats so this study defined the aims and objectives properly. Biometry did use materials from the animal facility of the Department of Biology College of Science, University of Kufa. The study was carried out over the duration of two months where thirty male rats aged between 15 to 20 weeks with body weight of 150 to 250 grams were successful and monitored. The subjects included in this study, they were divided into three specific groups of ten adult female rats each, the control group was feeding a normal diet for a duration of 4 weeks while the second group which was a treatment group was given aspartame artificial sweetener which was provided twice a day for a duration of four weeks, 10 mg/kg (which was referred to low-dose treatment that was given daily and 20 mg/kg for high dose treatment. The body weight of the animals was taken prior to the start of the experiment and after the stated time of the experiment had been completed. On the thirty one day, the animals were sacrificed and the pancreas were removed, examined and weighed.Histological examinations of the pancreatic gland in both experimental groups post-treatment with aspartame revealed changes in the cellular architecture of the islets of Langerhans which denotes that there were histopathological alterations in the pancreatic gland after the administration of aspartame, more precisely the cellular constitutions of the pancreatic islets were abnormal in configuration. The histological changes of the pancreas from the experimental groups were subjected to light microscopy, which demonstrated marked enlargement of islets of Langerhans while other remarkable findings included encroachment of adipocytes into the lobules, invasion of the connective tissues of pancreas, cell topped with vacuoles and low cellular density in the islands, damaged pancreatic acini, and infiltrates of lymphocytes.