title: Behavioral effects of Splenda, Equal and sucrose: Clues from planarians on sweeteners.
abstract: Sweetened diets share commonalities with drugs of abuse, but studies comparing behavioral effects of different sweeteners are lacking. Common table sugar produces rewarding and withdrawal effects in planarians. We postulated that Splenda and Equal would produce similar responses and used a tetrad of behavioral assays to test this hypothesis. Acute exposure to a relatively high concentration (10%) of each sweetener produced stereotyped responses (C-shapes) and reduced motility, with Equal producing greater motor effects than sucrose or Splenda. In experiments testing for anxiogenic-like effects, planarians withdrawn from Splenda (1, 3%) or sucrose (1, 3%), but not Equal, and placed into a petri dish with dark and light compartments spent more time in the dark compared to water controls. In place conditioning experiments, both Splenda (0.01%) and sucrose (0.01%) produced an environmental preference shift. Maltodextrin (0.1%), a principal ingredient of Splenda and Equal, produced a significant preference shift. In contrast, sucralose, an indigestible polysaccharide contained in Splenda and Equal, was ineffective. Our data reveal that Splenda produces sucrose-like rewarding and withdrawal effects in planarians that may be dependent on maltodextrin and dextrose. The ineffectiveness of Equal may be due to the presence of aspartame, which is too water insoluble to test in our planarian assay, or to its bitter aftertaste that could mask any rewarding effects produce by maltodextrin or dextrose.
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Sunil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Young
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Pharmacology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tallarida
authors.affiliation: Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Pharmacology, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: scott.rawls@temple.edu.
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Rawls
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology; D010932:Planarians / Q000187:drug effects*; D012201:Reward; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D013395:Sucrose / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D013549:Sweetening Agents; D013395:Sucrose; D005947:Glucose
keywords: Addiction; Anxiety; Artificial sweetener; Equal; Invertebrate; Place preference; Planarians; Reinforcing; Splenda; Sugar; Withdrawal