Journal of Dental Research, Vol 69, 1485-1487, Copyright © 1990 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
The effects of sucralose on coronal and root-surface caries
W. H. Bowen, D. A. Young and S. K. Pearson
Department of Dental Research, University of Rochester, New York 14642.
Sucralose is an intensely sweet, chlorinated carbohydrate structurally
similar to sucrose; thus, its cariogenic potential is of great interest.
Four groups of 12 Sprague-Dawley rats were infected with Streptococcus
mutans (sobrinus), caged in a Konig-Hofer programmed feeding machine, and
fed diet 2000 or modified diet to contain sucralose at various
concentrations instead of sucrose. Rats fed sucralose diet developed
significantly fewer lesions than did the rats fed regular diet 2000.
Animals fed diet 2000 also harbored more S. mutans (sobrinus) than did the
other groups of animals. In a concurrent study, desalivated rats were
inoculated with S. mutans (sobrinus) and Actinomyces viscosus. They were
fed (ad libitum) either diet 2000 (contains 56% sucrose) or diet 2000 minus
sucrose plus 93 mg% sucralose. The severity of caries lesions in the
sucralose-fed rats after 35 days was significantly less than those in the
sucrose-fed rats. The amount of root exposure was the same in both groups.
However, root-surface caries did not develop in the sucralose-fed rats.
These results show that sucralose is non-cariogenic in rats.
