Long-term toxicity of sodium cyclamate in mice
Abstract
Sodium cyclamate was fed to groups of 30 male and 30 female mice at dietary levels of 0·7, 1·75, 3·5 or 7·0%, with a group of 60 males and 60 females serving as controls. There were slight reductions in the rate of body-weight gain during the last 6 months of the study in the female mice given diets containing 0·7-3·5% cyclamate but this was not thought to represent a toxic effect. A mild anaemia was found in the mice given 7·0% cyclamate in their food. There were no effects attributable to treatment in respect of mortality, organ weights or the incidence of histological changes, including tumours. Particular attention was paid to the histopathology of the urinary bladder but there were no changes related to treatment. It was concluded that sodium cyclamate does not exert a carcinogenic effect in mice at dietary levels up to 7·0% and that the no-untoward-effect level in this study was 3·5%.