Effect of autonomous consumption of different sweet substances on the urinary proteome of mice

ObjectiveTo explore the possible effects on the organism by analysing changes in the urinary proteome of mice after autonomous consumption of different sweet substances. MethodsUrine samples were collected from C57BL/6l mice before and after active consumption of sweet substances. The sweet substances included sucrose, stevia glycosides, acesulfame, and sucralose, which are more widely used worldwide and can elicit a preference response in mice, and the concentrations of the non-nutritive sweeteners were chosen to be those that have been shown by existing studies to have the strongest preference response in mice. The analyses were performed by the non-labelled quantitative proteomics technique of high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and groups were screened for differential proteins in the urinary proteome for the analysis of protein functions and biological processes; comparisons of urinary proteomes before and after consumption of sweeteners by a single mouse were carried out; and side-by-side comparisons of different sweeteners were made. Results and ConclusionsUrine proteome could reflect the changes in the organism of mice after voluntary consumption of sweeteners, and the effects of different sweeteners on the urine proteome were not the same. Among the four sweeteners, sucralose and sucrose induced the most similar changes in the organism, and steviol glycosides induced the furthest changes in the organism; the changes induced by sucrose, acesulfame, and sucralose were similar, and steviol glycosides induced changes different from those of the other sweeteners. Stevia glycosides induced changes that were different from the other sweeteners. The urinary proteomic proteins that differed among the four sweeteners consumed autonomously by mice included proteins that have been reported to be associated with brain reward circuits, whereas only the urinary proteomic proteins that differed among the four sweeteners consumed autonomously by mice were associated with metabolic processes in large quantities after the voluntary consumption of sucrose, acesulfame, and sucralose, and the urinary proteomic proteins that differed among the four sweeteners consumed autonomously by mice were associated with the assembly of nucleosomes, gene expression, and other processes after the voluntary consumption of stevia glycosides.