SETO. Taste sensitivity in various strains of mice. Am. J. Physiol. 202 (6) : I 200-1204. 1g62.-The present study was designed to elucidate the differences in taste sensitivity in various strains of mice, and to study the relationship between taste sensitivity and color of the fur. Taste thresholds for four kinds of taste substance, i.e., sodium chloride, saccharine, acetic acid, and phenylthio...

Taste stimuli are transduced by taste buds and transmitted to the brain via afferent gustatory fibers. Renewal of taste receptor cells from actively dividing progenitors is finely tuned to maintain taste sensitivity throughout life. We show that conditional β-catenin deletion in mouse taste progenitors leads to rapid depletion of progenitors and Shh+ precursors, which in turn causes taste bud l...

Recent studies have suggested that the response profiles of taste-responsive cells in the brainstem may be modulated by inhibitory interactions, potentially originating from activity in peripheral taste nerves. This idea was explored by testing the hypothesis that brief (100 msec) pulses of taste stimuli would alter the responses to subsequently presented tastants in the nucleus of the solitary...

Taste loss in human patients following radiotherapy for head and neck cancer is a common and significant problem, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this loss are not understood. Taste stimuli are transduced by receptor cells within taste buds, and like epidermal cells, taste cells are regularly replaced throughout adult life. This renewal relies on progenitor cells adjacent to taste buds, ...

In the adult mouse tongue, an average of 11% of the gustatory receptor cells are replaced each day. In investigating homeostatic cell death mechanisms in gustatory renewing epithelium, we observed that taste receptor cells were selectively immunopositive for the bcl-2 family death factor, Bax, and for the protease Caspase-2 (Nedd2/Ich1). We determined that 8-10% of the taste receptor cells of t...

Except for taste bud cells, all sensory receptor cells and neurons have been shown to originate from neurogenic ectoderm (i.e., neural tube, neural crest, or ectodermal placodes). Descriptive studies on taste buds indicate that they, however, may arise from local epithelium. To determine whether taste receptor cells originate from neurogenic ectoderm or from local epithelium, the tongues of X c...

The sweet taste receptor is expressed in taste cells located in taste buds of the tongue. This receptor senses sweet substances in the oral cavity, activates taste cells, and transmits the taste signals to adjacent neurons. The sweet taste receptor is a heterodimer of two G protein-coupled receptors, T1R2 and T1R3. Recent studies have shown that this receptor is also expressed in the extragusta...

Sensory issues are widely reported in Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Since taste perception is one of the least studied senses in ASC we explored taste identification in adults with ASC (12 males, 11 females) compared to control participants (14 males, 12 females). 'Taste strips' were used to measure taste identification overall, as well as bitter, sour, sweet and salty tastes. Results revea...

Taste alteration is a frequent and significant problem for patients with cancer. Taste alterations are defined as changes in the usual patterns of taste perception that are unique to the person experiencing the changes (Bender, 1999). Taste alterations may occur as a result of the cancer itself, treatment of the cancer, or other social and emotional factors. Alterations in taste are not a life-...

An amiloride-insensitive (AI) salt taste receptor is the predominant transducer of Na+ taste in some mammalian species. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to characterize the AI-salt taste receptor. The AI-salt taste receptor in rat and mouse fungiform taste receptor cells (TRCs) was activated by the vanilloid receptor-1 (VR-1) agonists, resiniferatoxin (RTX), capsiacin (CAP) and elev...