Oral epithelia protect against constant challenges by bacteria, viruses, toxins and injury while also contributing to the formation of ectodermal appendages such as teeth, salivary glands and lingual papillae. Despite increasing evidence that differentiation pathway genes are frequently mutated in oral cancers, comparatively little is known about the mechanisms that regulate normal oral epithel...

Striking taste disturbances are reported in cancer patients treated with Hedgehog (HH)-pathway inhibitor drugs, including sonidegib (LDE225), which block the HH pathway effector Smoothened (SMO). We tested the potential for molecular, cellular, and functional recovery in mice from the severe disruption of taste-organ biology and taste sensation that follows HH/SMO signaling inhibition. Sonidegi...

BACKGROUND The perception of sour taste in humans is incompletely understood at the receptor cell level. We report here on two patients with an acquired sour ageusia. Each patient was unresponsive to sour stimuli, but both showed normal responses to bitter, sweet, and salty stimuli. METHODS AND FINDINGS Lingual fungiform papillae, containing taste cells, were obtained by biopsy from the two p...

Background: Avian tongue has a significant role in the feeding process. The current investigation was planned to study histological and ultrastructural features of two avians. Java sparrow (Lonchura oryzivora) Hoopoe (Upupa epops). Methods: Fourteen birds were used including seven sparrows Hoopoes during investigation. Careful procedures dissection process avian species. Their heads separated f...

The Notch pathway is involved in determining cell fate within the nervous system and in various sensory organs (Lanford et al., 1999; Cau et al., 2000; Furukawa et al., 2000; Ito et al., 2000; Zine et al., 2000). For example, Mash1 is expressed in subsets of neuronal precursors in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) (Guillemot et al., 1993). Disruption ...

The study was supported by 2006-2007 Aid Program for Overseas Training of the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private School of Japan and International Exchange Grant, Osaka Dental University. We studied the function of TRPV4 expression and its neuronal activation in response to noxious stimulation of oral mucosa. The intermolar region of dorsal lingual eminence (IDLE) of rats was stim...