Assessment of carcinogenic potential of soft drinks of cola, diet cola, orange and lemon, produced in the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais state, Brazil

• Main Authors: Cássio Resende de Morais, Thays Cunha Vieira, Renato Mendonça Borges, Luisa Mariana Melo Guimarães, Lucas Almeida Barcelos, Fernanda Carvalho Souza, Leticia Santos Pimentel, Jéssica Costa da Silva, Mirley Alves Vasconcelos, Tamiris Sabrina Rodrigues, Francielle Aparecida de Souza, Alexandre Azenha Alves de Rezende, Mário Antônio Spanó, Ana Maria Bonetti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia 2016-07-01
• Series: Bioscience Journal
• Subjects: soft drinks; wts; drosophila melanogaster
• Online Access: http://www.seer.ufu.br/index.php/biosciencejournal/article/view/32969

Soft drinks are industrialized unfermented beverages, free of alcohol, carbonated, rich in artificial flavors and sugar. The intense consumption of such beverages can be related to not inheritable diseases such as caries, allergy, cellulite and stretch marks, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes and cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of different concentrations of soft drinks produced in the Uberlândia city, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, by means of Epithelial Tumor Detection Test using Drosophila melanogaster as a model. Third stage larvae descendants of crosses between D. melanogaster virgin females wts/TM3, sb¹ and males mwh/mwh were treated with different concentrations (0.83, 1.66 or 3.33 mL/g) of cola, diet cola, orange or lemon soft drinks. The total epithelial tumor rate observed in flies treated with 3.33 mL/g of cola and orange soft drinks was higher than the negative control. The diet cola and lemon caused no significant increase in the overall frequency of epithelial tumors in D. melanogaster. In conclusion, in these experimental conditions, the cola and orange base soft drinks demonstrated carcinogenic potential in somatic cells of D. melanogaster in the concentration of 3.33 mL/g.