Caicedo A, Roper S D
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Program in Neuroscience, University of Miami School of Medicine, 1600 NW 10th Avenue, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Science. 2001 Feb 23;291(5508):1557-60. doi: 10.1126/science.1056670.
Recent studies showing that single taste bud cells express multiple bitter taste receptors have reignited a long-standing controversy over whether single gustatory receptor cells respond selectively or broadly to tastants. We examined calcium responses of rat taste receptor cells in situ to a panel of bitter compounds to determine whether individual cells distinguish between bitter stimuli. Most bitter-responsive taste cells were activated by only one out of five compounds tested. In taste cells that responded to multiple stimuli, there were no significant associations between any two stimuli. Bitter sensation does not appear to occur through the activation of a homogeneous population of broadly tuned bitter-sensitive taste cells. Instead, different bitter stimuli may activate different subpopulations of bitter-sensitive taste cells.
近期研究表明，单个味蕾细胞表达多种苦味受体，这再次引发了一场长期存在的争议，即单个味觉受体细胞对味觉刺激的反应是具有选择性还是具有宽泛性。我们检测了大鼠原位味觉受体细胞对一组苦味化合物的钙反应，以确定单个细胞是否能区分不同的苦味刺激。大多数对苦味有反应的味觉细胞仅被所测试的五种化合物中的一种激活。在对多种刺激有反应的味觉细胞中，任意两种刺激之间均无显著关联。苦味感觉似乎并非通过激活一群对苦味具有宽泛调谐性的同质化味觉细胞而产生。相反，不同的苦味刺激可能激活苦味敏感味觉细胞的不同亚群。
