Abstract:
Introduction: use of sweetener natural or artificial is widely used and appeared to harm the structure of the cerebellar cortex
Aim of the work: comparison between the effect of aspartame and stevia on the Purkinje cells of the cerebellar cortex of albino rats.
Material and methods: A total of 30 adult male albino rats were used The animals were divided into Group I (Control): received distilled water, Group II (ASP treated): which received aspartame (ASP), which is given at a daily dose 250 mg/kg dissolved in distilled water for 4 weeks.
Group III (stevia treated): This received Stevia at a daily dose of 250mg/kg given orally by intragastric tube for 4 weeks. The rats' offspring from each of the groups were randomly selected, sacrificed then their skulls were
opened and their cerebellar tissues were taken for transmission electron microscope study.
Result: aspartame affected the Purkinje cells where it becomes a shrunken loss of its piriform appearance also in the stevia-treated group, the Purkinje cells lost their piriform shape with ill define cytoplasm and nuclei while Some Purkinje cells appeared normal.Conclousion: Stevioside and aspartame appeared to have a harmful effect on the structure of the purkinji cells of cerebellar cortex.