Renal‐protective and ameliorating impacts of omega‐3 fatty acids against aspartame damaged MDCK cells

Aspartame is widely used artificial sweeteners as food additives. Several researchers have pointed that the controversial report on the use of aspartame over more than decades. Omega‐3 fatty acids are essential and unsaturated fatty acids, and it plays a remarkable role in vision, intelligence, neural development, and metabolism of neurotransmitters. Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate the effect of omega‐3 fatty acids on aspartame treated renal cells. Experimental groups were divided into three such as sham control, aspartame treated, and aspartame with omega‐3 fatty acids. Cell viability was determined by sulforhodamine‐b assay and flow cytometric analysis. The experimental results showed that the aspartame induced altered cell viability were reduced following treatment of aspartame with omega‐3 fatty acids. Altered cell morphology was recovered by omega‐3 fatty acids. DNA damage appeared in the highest concentration of aspartame used in this study. DNA damage characteristics such as comet tail and tiny head sections did not appear in the omega‐3 fatty acids treated cells. Several microvilli and vesicular structures were found in aspartame treated cells. Altered morphology such as rounding, microvilli, and formation of dome‐like structures did not appear in the omega‐3 fatty acids with aspartame treated cells. Caspase‐3 mRNA and protein expression were increased in aspartame treated cells, and these levels were reduced following omega‐3 fatty acids treatment. Taking all these data together, it is suggested that the omega‐3 fatty acids may be a therapeutic agent to reduce the aspartame induced biochemical and morphological alterations in normal renal cells. © 2017 BioFactors, 43(6):847–857, 2017