Cholecystokinin (CCK) is a gut hormone released from enteroendocrine cells. CCK functions as an anorexigenic factor by acting on CCK receptors expressed on the vagal afferent nerve and hypothalamus with a synergistic interaction between leptin. In the gut, tastants such as amino acids and bitter compounds stimulate CCK release from enteroendocrine cells via activation of taste transduction path...

Momordica charantia is often called bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash because its fruit has a bitter taste. The fruit has been widely used as vegetable and herbal medicine. Alpha-eleostearic acid is the major fatty acid in the seeds, but little is known about its biosynthesis. As an initial step towards understanding the biochemical mechanism of fatty acid accumulation in bitter melon...

Bitterness is a distinctive taste sensation, but central coding for this quality remains enigmatic. Although some receptor cells and peripheral fibers are selectively responsive to bitter ligands, central bitter responses are most typical in broadly tuned neurons. Recently we reported more specifically tuned bitter-best cells (B-best) in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST). Most had glossop...

Although human bitter taste perception is hypothesized to be a dietary adaptation, little is known about genetic signatures of selection and patterns of bitter taste perception variability in ethnically diverse populations with different diets, particularly from Africa. To better understand the genetic basis and evolutionary history of bitter taste sensitivity, we sequenced a 2,975 bp region en...

BACKGROUND Alleles of the receptor gene TAS2R38 are responsible in part for the variation in bitter taste perception of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) and structurally similar compounds (eg, glucosinolates in cruciferous vegetables). At low concentrations, people with the PAV ("taster" amino acid sequence) form of TAS2R38 perceive these bitter compounds, whereas most with the AVI ("nontaster" amin...

21 Steroid glycosides extracted from the succulent plant Hoodia gordonii are suggested to have 22 appetite suppressant effects both in animals and humans. Yet, the mechanisms underlying the 23 putative satiety action of Hoodia steroid glycosides are not fully understood. We found that 24 H.g.-12, a steroid glycoside purified from Hoodia gordonii extract, initiated cholecystokinin 25 (CCK) secre...

1This research was funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7 ⁄ 2007–2013) under the grant agreement no. 227549. 2Corresponding author: [email protected] ABSTRACT: Knowledge on porcine bitter and fat taste receptors and on their expression in gastrointestinal tract of pigs is scarce. We searched for the presence of porcine homologous sequences for 13 human transcripts of bitt...