Department of Food Science and Technology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, 14216, USA.
Physiol Behav. 2023 Apr 1;262:114109. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114109. Epub 2023 Feb 4.
Saliva is well-described in oral food processing, but its role in taste responsiveness remains understudied. Taste stimuli must dissolve in saliva to reach their receptor targets. This allows the constituents of saliva the opportunity to interact with taste stimuli and their receptors at the most fundamental level. Yet, despite years of correlational data suggesting a role for salivary proteins in food preference, there were few experimental models to test the role of salivary proteins in taste-driven behaviors. Here we review our experimental contributions to the hypothesis that salivary proteins can alter taste function. We have developed a rodent model to test how diet alters salivary protein expression, and how salivary proteins alter diet acceptance and taste. We have found that salivary protein expression is modified by diet, and these diet-induced proteins can, in turn, increase the acceptance of a bitter diet. The change in acceptance is in part mediated by a change in taste signaling. Critically, we have documented increased detection threshold, decreased taste nerve signaling, and decreased oromotor responding to quinine when animals have increases in a subset of salivary proteins compared to control conditions.
唾液在口腔食物加工中已有详细描述，但它在味觉反应中的作用仍未得到充分研究。味觉刺激物必须溶解在唾液中才能到达其受体靶标。这使得唾液的成分有机会在最基本的水平上与味觉刺激物及其受体相互作用。然而，尽管多年来的相关数据表明唾液蛋白在食物偏好中起作用，但很少有实验模型来测试唾液蛋白在味觉驱动行为中的作用。在这里，我们回顾了我们在假设唾液蛋白可以改变味觉功能方面的实验贡献。我们已经开发了一种啮齿动物模型来测试饮食如何改变唾液蛋白的表达，以及唾液蛋白如何改变对饮食的接受程度和味觉。我们发现，饮食会改变唾液蛋白的表达，而这些饮食诱导的蛋白反过来又会增加对苦味饮食的接受度。接受度的变化部分是由味觉信号的变化介导的。至关重要的是，与对照条件相比，当动物的唾液蛋白子集增加时，我们记录到奎宁的检测阈值增加、味觉神经信号减少以及口腔运动反应减少。
