Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
The MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-Machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Anal Chem. 2022 May 17;94(19):6976-6985. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c05384. Epub 2022 May 3.
The past decade has witnessed tremendous progress achieved in taste research, while few studies focus on interactions among taste compounds. Indeed, sweeteners and acidulants are commonly used food additives, and sweet-sour mixtures always provide improved tastes. For example, sensory studies have shown that sourness suppresses sweetness. However, the degree of sweetness suppression by sourness is difficult to evaluate quantitatively and objectively. Therefore, we propose a biohybrid tongue that is constructed by integrating mammalian gustatory epithelium with a microelectrode array chip. The taste quality and intensity information is coded in time-frequency patterns of local field potential. Different response patterns evoked by sweet and sour stimuli are observed, and the response is dose-dependent. Then, interaction effects of sourness against sweetness are quantified. The results indicate that suppression of sweetness by sourness occurs by increasing sourness concentrations. In summary, this study provides a powerful new tool for quantitative evaluation of sweet, sour, and their binary taste interactions that mimic the mammalian taste system.
过去十年见证了味觉研究取得的巨大进展，而很少有研究关注味觉化合物之间的相互作用。事实上，甜味剂和酸味剂是常用的食品添加剂，甜酸混合物总能提供更好的口感。例如，感官研究表明，酸味能抑制甜味。然而，酸味对甜味的抑制程度很难定量和客观地评估。因此，我们提出了一种生物混合舌头，它是由整合哺乳动物味觉上皮与微电极阵列芯片构建而成。味觉质量和强度信息以局部场电位的时频模式编码。观察到由甜酸刺激引起的不同响应模式，且该响应呈剂量依赖性。然后，量化酸味对甜味的相互作用效应。结果表明，酸味对甜味的抑制作用是通过增加酸味浓度来实现的。综上所述，本研究为定量评估甜味、酸味及其模拟哺乳动物味觉系统的二元味觉相互作用提供了一种强大的新工具。
