For homeostasis, lingual taste papilla organs require regulation of epithelial cell survival and renewal, with sustained innervation and stromal interactions. To investigate a role for Hedgehog/GLI signaling in adult taste organs we used a panel of conditional mouse models to manipulate GLI activity within epithelial cells of the fungiform and circumvallate papillae. Hedgehog signaling suppress...

Taste assessment trials are conducted with an aim to evaluate taste of tastants (food, chemical, drug etc.) and involve estimation of gustatory sensation responses in healthy human volunteers within well controlled procedures. Taste assessment trials are the standard and so far preferred method of taste assessment. Several in vitro taste assessment approaches have emerged as subsidiary methods ...

In mammals, taste receptor cells are organized into taste buds on tongue. Taste buds are trophically maintained by taste neurons and under continuous renewal, even in adults. We found that the receptor for Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Patched1 (Ptc), was expressed around taste buds where cells were proliferating, and that Shh was expressed within basal cells of taste buds. Denervation caused the loss ...

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Previous studies have shown that aging modifies taste sensitivity. However, the factors affecting the changes in taste sensitivity remain unclear. To investigate the cause of the age-related changes in taste sensitivity, we compared the peripheral taste detection systems in young and old mice. First, we examined whether taste sensitivity varied according to age using behavioral assays. We confi...

Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5) and its homologs (e.g., Lgr6) mark adult stem cells in multiple tissues. Recently, we and others have shown that Lgr5 marks adult taste stem/progenitor cells in posterior tongue. However, the regenerative potential of Lgr5-expressing (Lgr5(+)) cells and the identity of adult taste stem/progenitor cells that regenerate taste tiss...

A number of gustatory receptors have been proposed to underlie umami, the taste of L-glutamate, and certain other amino acids and nucleotides. However, the response profiles of these cloned receptors have not been validated against responses recorded from taste receptor cells that are the native detectors of umami taste. We investigated umami taste responses in mouse circumvallate taste buds in...

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...

To determine whether the innervation of taste buds changes during postnatal development, the number of geniculate ganglion cells that innervated single fungiform taste buds were quantified in the tip- and midregions of the tongue of adult and developing rats. There was substantial variation in both the size of individual taste buds and number of geniculate ganglion cells that innervated them. I...

Taste dysfunction is a significant but underestimated issue for patients with cancer. Impaired taste results in changes in diet and appetite, early satiety, and impaired social interactions. Nurses can play a key role in educating patients and families on the pathophysiology of taste dysfunction by suggesting interventions to treat the consequences of taste dysfunction, when available, and offe...