Effects of aspartame on the evaluation of electrophysiological responses in Wistar albino rats

Peer review under responsibility of Taibah University.

Figures & data

Table 1 Aspartame on heart rate variability (HRV).

Parameter	Control	FD	Control +ASP	FD + ASP
Mean NN interval	280 ± 25	295 ± 30	420 ± 13^*a,*b	428 ± 20^*a,*b
Frequency domain analysis
Total spectral power (TSP) ms^2	7.8 ± 0.94	6.84 ± 0.85	3.45 ± 0.52^*a,*b	3.27 ± 0.60^*a,*b
Lower frequency (LF) ms^2	0.62 ± 0.15	0.78 ± 0.19	1.54 ± 0.30^*a,*b	1.70 ± 0.28^*a,*b
Higher frequency (HF) ms^2	5.50 ± 0.90	4.84 ± 0.73	2.72 ± 0.54^*a,*b	2.30 ± 0.45^*a,*b
LF/HF ratio	0.23 ± 0.03	0.19 ± 0.02	0.12 ± 0.02^*a,*b	0.10 ± 0.03^*a,*b
Time domain analysis
SDNN (ms)	4.8 ± 0.85	4.20 ± 0.70	1.83 ± 0.54^*a,*b	1.71 ± 0.42^*a,*b
RMSSD (ms)	3.24 ± 0.52	2.30 ± 0.60	0.82 ± 0.23^*a,*b	0.64 ± 0.28^*a,*b
PNN50	2.17 ± 0.44	1.92 ± 0.35	0.90 ± 0.15^*a,*b	0.78 ± 0.13^*a,*b

Effect of aspartame on heart rate variability (HRV). Each value represents mean ± SD. Significance at *p < 0.05, *a – compared with control, *b – compared with folate-deficient rats (FD). FD: folate deficient, ASP: aspartame. SDNN: Standard deviation of the NN intervals, RMSSD: Square root of the mean squared differences of successive NN intervals, NN50, Number of interval differences of successive NN intervals greater than 50 ms, and pNN50, the proportion derived by dividing NN50 by the total number of NN intervals.

Fig. 1 Effect of aspartame on EEG recording. (a)–(f) EEG waves (amplitude and frequency) of both the fronto-parietal and occipital regions. Each value represents mean ± SD. Significance at *p < 0.05, *a – compared with control animals, *b – compared with folate-deficient (FD) animals. FD: folate deficient, ASP: aspartame.