Keywords

Sodium benzoate; Comet assay; Neuro-2a; Single cell gel electrophoresis; Immunofluorescence; Neurite length

Abstract

Sodium benzoate is a food preservative present in sodas, fruit juices, and other acidic foods and beverages [1]. Its acceptable daily intake is 0-20 mg/kg body weight [2], and it is generally recognized as safe [1, 3]. However, sodium benzoate has been linked to hyperactivity in children [4, 5] and adults [6] and to deficits and behavioral changes in rodents [7-10], indicating potential negative impacts on the nervous system. Sodium benzoate has also induced genotoxic effects in human lymphocytes [11, 12] and Chinese hamster fibroblast cells [13] in vitro and in rat liver tissue in vivo [14]. The effect of sodium benzoate on neuronal morphology and DNA have not yet been studied in vitro. We hypothesize that sodium benzoate will cause concentration-dependent morphological and DNA changes in Neuro-2a cells. For the morphology study, cells were plated on coated coverslips in differentiation media containing 0 μg/mL, 200 μg/mL, or 1000 μg/mL of sodium benzoate. After immunostaining, NeuronJ (ImageJ; NIH) was used to trace the neuronal processes. For the genotoxicity study, the cells were grown in complete media containing 0 μg/mL, 50 μg/mL, or 200 μg/mL of sodium benzoate, and DNA damage was assessed via an alkaline comet assay. The 1000 μg/mL sodium benzoate condition had significantly more short neurites, significantly less medium neurites, and significantly more long neurites than control. The 200 μg/mL sodium benzoate condition was significantly higher than control only for long neurites. No significant difference between treatment groups was found in the comet assay study. These findings help indicate that sodium benzoate could affect the neuronal growth pattern and should be further investigated in light of previous behavioral studies [7-10].

Thesis Completion Year

2024

Thesis Completion Semester

Summer

Thesis Chair

Hawthorne, Alicia

College

College of Medicine

Department

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences

Thesis Discipline

Biomedical Sciences

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus Access

None

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Subjects

Sodium benzoate; Food preservatives--Toxicology; Neurotoxicology--Research; Food additives--Toxicology; Human cell culture--Effect of chemicals on

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