VOLTAGE CLAMP PROBE OF TASTE RESPONSES IN DEVELOPMENT

口味是食物选择和偏好的主要因素。含有以下成分的食物 高糖和高钠通常比平淡的更受欢迎- 品尝食物。糖类的享乐主义影响(甜味)和 钠(咸味)通常在食物选择中起作用。 被认为是有营养的。然而，在一些人身上，满足的动力 这些口味导致了糟糕的食物选择和不正常的饮食习惯 有严重的健康后果。后者包括肥胖、暴食症、 还有高血压。为了了解味觉在进食行为中的作用，它 对生理学和生物物理学的理解是必不可少的 舌头上味觉细胞兴奋的基础过程。 为了帮助实现这一点，我们开发了一种方法，允许 来自味觉神经(鼓索)的录音，带有限定的部分 电压钳下舌侧背侧感受野的变化。方法 利用味觉的极性上皮拓扑结构 粘膜中跨细胞和旁细胞离子通路的研究 味蕾。它将用于将电压微扰(VP)施加到 味觉细胞的顶膜及其紧密连接屏障 并记录这些扰动对神经反应的影响。 依赖于离子流过味觉细胞顶端的转导机制 在电压扰动下，可以检测到膜。钠离子是 以这种方式检测到的。我们将使用VP来跟踪出生后的发育 在老鼠和仓鼠的钠检测味觉系统中，有两个物种 对钠的敏感性的变化从相反的接近成熟度 两极，即幼鼠的低敏感症和幼鼠的高敏感症 仓鼠。在VP方法中，离子通道密度和/或钠的变化- 在发育中的大鼠和仓鼠中将遵循通道亲和力。副总裁 方法是自由可逆的，不依赖药理学试剂，并且 因为它们是在神经反应中被检测的，所以有保证 施加的干扰会对味觉的接受产生影响。副总裁 方法也将被用来探测钾盐敏感性的变化。 随着大鼠的发育和糖类敏感性的变化 发育中的仓鼠。

Taste is a major factor in food selection and preference. Foods containing high levels of saccharides and sodium are usually preferred over bland- tasting foods. The hedonic impact of saccharides (sweet-tasting) and sodium (salty-tasting) plays a role in the selection of foods normally regarded as nutritious. However, in some individuals the drive to satisfy these tastes results in poor food selection and abnormal eating habits having serious health consequences. The latter include obesity, bulimia, and hypertension. To understand the role of taste in feeding behavior, it is essential to have an appreciation of the physiological and biophysical processes that underlie excitation of taste sensory cells on the tongue. To help accomplish this, we have developed a method that permits recordings from taste nerves (chorda tympani) with a circumscribed portion of the dorsal lingual receptive field under voltage-clamp. The method takes advantage of the polar epithelial topology of the taste sensory mucosa to probe both the transcellular and paracellular ion pathways in taste buds. It will be used to apply voltage-perturbations (VPs) across the apical membranes of taste cells and their tight junctional barriers and to record the effects of such perturbations on the neural response. Transduction mechanisms that rely on ion flow across taste cell apical membranes can be detected under voltage-perturbation. Sodium ion is detected in this way. We shall use VPs to follow the postnatal development of the sodium-detecting taste system in rats and hamsters, two species in which changes in sensitivity to sodium approaches maturity from opposite poles, i.e. hyposensitivity in young rats and hypersensitivity in young hamsters. With VP methods, changes in ion channel density and/or sodium- channel affinity will be followed in developing rats and hamsters. VP methods are freely reversible, do not rely on pharmacological agents, and because they are assayed in the neural response, there is assurance that the applied perturbations have consequences for taste reception. VP methods will also be used to probe changes in potassium salt sensitivity with development in rats and changes in saccharide sensitivity in developing hamsters.