Effects of self-consumption of different sweet substances on urine proteome of mice

Abstract: Objective: To explore the possible effects of different sweet taste substances on the body by analyzing the changes of urinary proteome in mice after self-consumption of different sweet taste substances.
Methods: Urine samples of C57BL/6l mice were collected before and after self-consumption of sweet substances, including sucrose, stevia glycosides, acesulfame and sucralose, which are widely used in the world and can cause the preference reaction of mice. Among them, the concentration of non-nutritive sweeteners was selected as the concentration that has been shown to have the strongest preference reaction of mice. Label-free quantitative proteomics using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for analysis. Differential proteins of urine proteome were screened in groups for analysis of protein functions and biological pathways. The urine proteome of single mice before and after self-consumption of sweet substances was compared, and the common differential proteins were counted; and the different sweet substances were compared horizontally.
Results and conclusions: Urine proteome can reflect the body changes of mice after self-consumption of sweet substances. And the effects of different sweet substances on urine proteome were different. Among the four sweet substances, sucralose caused the most similar changes in the body compared with sucrose. Compared with sucrose, stevia glycosides caused the most different changes in the body. The body changes caused by sucrose, acesulfame and sucralose are similar, but the body changes caused by stevia glycoside are different from other sweet substances. After self-consumption of the four sweet substances, the urine proteome differential proteins in mice all had proteins that had been reported to be related to brain reward circuitry, while only the urine proteome differential proteins after self-consumption of sucrose, acesulfame and sucralose were mainly related to metabolic processes. Urine proteomic differential proteins after acesulfame of stevia glycoside were mainly related to nucleosome assembly and gene expression.