Artificial Sweetener Consumption Increasing Type II Diabetes Risk Revealed by Gut Microbiome

Artificial sweeteners, low-caloric sugar substitutes, are widely applied in modern food industry and regularly consumed by people. However, recent studies have shown the increasing disease risk by consuming artificial sweeteners, especially metabolic diseases. In this study, we investigated the effect of three artificial sweeteners, namely, saccharin, acesulfame-potassium, and stevia on Type II diabetes risk by gut microbiome. The study utilized the 16S rRNA gut microbiome data from rat fecal samples to analyze the gut microbiome abundance, composition, and difference between four groups, i.e., acesulfame-potassium, saccharin, stevia, and control group. The most significant gut microbiota changes were identified and used to determine whether the altered bacteria taxa have correlation with glucose intolerance and Type II diabetes. In the end, it is found that the Faecalibacillus genus and Prevotellax genus have significant changes and are closely related with higher risk of Type II diabetes, suggesting acesulfame-potassium and saccharin consumption may increase diabetic risk via altering gut microbiome, while no bacteria taxa change in stevia group is found to be related with glucose intolerance or Type II diabetes. This gut microbiome-based study revealed the key disrupted gut microbiota by artificial sweeteners that were associated with Type II diabetes.