Fungiform papillae are epithelial taste organs that form on the tongue, requiring differentiation of papillae and inter-papilla epithelium. We tested roles of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the receptor EGFR in papilla development. Developmentally, EGF was localized within and between papillae whereas EGFR was progressively restricted to inter-papilla epithelium. In tongue cultures, EGF decr...

Taste buds consist of four kinds of cells which have distinct characteristics and play different roles in recognizing chemical compounds contained in foodstuffs. In this study we describe a procedure for separating viable taste bud cells from the fungiform papillae in mice. After sacrifice with CO(2), the mouse tongue was excised and immediately incubated in collagenase II and dispase II. The e...

Acid-sensing ion channel-2a (ASIC2a) is an amiloride-blockable proton-gated cation channel, probably contributing to sour-taste detection in rat taste cells. To isolate another subtype of the sour-taste receptor, we screened a rat circumvallate papilla cDNA library and identified ASIC2b, an N-terminal splice variant of ASIC2a. Reverse transcription-PCR analyses confirmed the expression of ASIC2...

Exposure to artificial sweetener acesulfame-K (AK) at early development stages may influence the adult sweet preference and the periphery gustatory system. We observed that the intraoral AK stimulation to mice from postnatal day 4 (P4) to weaning decreased the preference thresholds for AK and sucrose solutions in adulthood, with the preference pattern unchanged. The preference scores were incre...

The transduction of sodium salts occurs through a variety of mechanisms, including sodium influx through amiloride-sensitive sodium channels, anion-dependent sodium movement through intercellular junctions and unidentified amiloride-insensitive mechanisms. Characterizations of sodium transport in lingual epithelium mounted in Ussing chambers have focused almost exclusively on epithelia containi...

Taste papillae are ectodermal specializations that serve to house and distribute the taste buds and their renewing cell populations in specific locations on the tongue. We previously showed that Sonic hedgehog (Shh) has a major role in regulating the number and spatial pattern of fungiform taste papillae on embryonic rat tongue, during a specific period of papilla formation from the prepapilla ...

The nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, and nasopharynx are sites for a wide variety of tumors and non neoplastic conditions. Inverted papilloma accounts for about 0.5-4% of total nose and paranasal sinus tumours. Men are affected 4 times more often than women. The major types are fungiform papilloma, inverted papilloma, and oncocytic Schneiderian papilloma. The latter has often been referred to a...

The dorsal surface of the tongues of the Slow Loris and the Pygma Slow Loris were examined by employing scanning electron microscopy techniques. Three types of the papillae are present on their dorsal surface of the tongue: filiform, fungiform and vallate. The filiform papillae are located the apex and the body of the tongue, and we observed that each of them has a gustatory pore. The fungiform...