The artificial sweetener neotame negatively regulates the intestinal epithelium directly through T1R3-signaling and indirectly through pathogenic changes to model gut bacteria.

Introduction: Recent studies have indicated considerable health risks associated with the consumption of artificial sweeteners. Neotame is a relatively new sweetener in the global market however there is still limited data on the impact of neotame on the intestinal epithelium or the commensal microbiota.

Methods: In the present study, we use a model of the intestinal epithelium (Caco-2) and microbiota ( and ) to investigate how physiologically-relevant exposure of neotame impacts intestinal epithelial cell function, gut bacterial metabolism and pathogenicity, and gut epithelium-microbiota interactions.