Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on January 7, 2009
Chemical Senses 2009 34(3):211-220; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjn078
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Consumption of SC45647 and Sucralose by Rats Selectively Bred for High and Low Saccharin Intake
Department of Psychology, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Nancy K. Dess, Department of Psychology, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA. e-mail: dessnk{at}oxy.edu
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Abstract |
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Mammals' affinity for sweet tastes exists alongside dramatic variation among species and individuals in responses to sweeteners. The present paper focused on consumption by Occidental High– (HiS) and Low–Saccharin (LoS)-consuming rats in 23-h 2-bottle tests of 2 sweeteners for which few data from rats are available: SC45647 and sucralose. Every HiS and LoS rat preferred SC45647 to water at every concentration, with HiS rats consuming it more avidly. Most HiS rats preferred sucralose to water at one or more concentrations; some HiS rats and most LoS rats avoided sucralose at every concentration. However, both HiS and LoS rats preferred a sucralose–maltodextrin mixture (Splenda) to water; thus, Splenda’s "bulking" ingredient maltodextrin transforms highly variable responses to sucralose into a relatively homogeneous preference for the product. Implications for the study of variation in sweet taste are discussed.
Key words: maltodextrin, rats, SC45647, selective breeding, Splenda, sucralose
Accepted 4 December 2008