Research identifying connections between the gastrointestinal flora and human health has developed at a rapid pace. Several studies link the gut microbiome to a variety of biological functions beyond the gastrointestinal tract. Changes in our diets, including the consumption of artificial sweeteners, have profound effects on the composition of the gut microbiome and can, in turn, affect brain f...

In cell line and animal models, sweet and bitter tastants induce secretion of signaling peptides (e.g., glucagon-like peptide-1 and cholecystokinin) and slow gastric emptying (GE). Whether human GE and appetite responses are regulated by the sweetness or bitterness per se of ingested food is, however, unknown. We aimed to determine whether intragastric infusion of "equisweet" (Study A) or "equi...

1-N-Alkylated-6-sulfamoyl saccharin derivatives were prepared and assayed as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (CAIs). During X-ray crystallographic experiments an unexpected hydrolysis of the isothiazole ring was evidenced which allowed us to prepare highly potent enzyme inhibitors with selectivity for some isoforms with medical applications.

Use of cisplatin as a chemotherapeutic agent causes acute and delayed emesis. Kaolin, saccharin solution and normal feed consumption have been evaluated as an index of cisplatin-induced emesis in rats; however, the most preferable of these methods for evaluating the various phases of emesis remains unclear. In the current study, kaolin, saccharin solution and normal feed consumption following c...

To examine the hypothesis that Pavlovian autoshaping provides an animal learning model of drug abuse, two studies evaluated the induction of ethanol drinking by autoshaping procedures. In Experiment 1, the sipper tube conditioned stimulus (CS) contained saccharin/ethanol solution and was repeatedly paired with food as an unconditioned stimulus (US). The CS-US paired group consumed more of the 0...

It has been suggested that the use of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) can lead to weight gain, but evidence regarding their real effect in body weight and satiety is still inconclusive. Using a rat model, the present study compares the effect of saccharin and aspartame to sucrose in body weight gain and in caloric intake. Twenty-nine male Wistar rats received plain yogurt sweetened with 20% sucr...

Use of natural noncaloric sweeteners in commercial foods and beverages has expanded recently to include compounds from the plant Stevia rebaudiana. Little is known about the responses of rodents, the animal models for many studies of taste systems and food intake, to stevia sweeteners. In the present experiments, preferences of female Sprague-Dawley rats and C57BL/6J mice for different stevia p...

Cu-filled TSV (through silicon via) is important technology for 3-D LSIs in order to obtain higher packing density, faster signal transmission, and lower power consumption. Diameter of TSV is expected to be smaller than 2 μm, and its aspect ratio to be larger than 10 in near future [1]. For realizing a high aspect ratio Cu-filled TSV, it is essentially important to form the barrier and seed lay...

Brain microdialysis combined with HPLC and spectroscopic detection was used to monitor extracellular glutamate in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) of rats during acquisition of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA). Microdialysis fractions taken every 20 min were used to assess the effects of presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone (CS, consumption of 0.1% saccharin), the unconditioned stimul...

A number of studies have related cholinergic activity to the mediation of learning and memory. However, the acetylcholine (ACh) participation has been recently implicated in the early stages of memory formation but not during retrieval. The aim of the present study is to evaluate ACh release in the insular cortex (IC) during presentation of different taste stimuli and during their re-exposition...