A model of multisensitive taste cells of the rat: mechanism of
nonlinear responses of taste cells to mixed taste stimuli.
Kashimori, Yoshiki, Masayoshi Naito, Naoyuki Sasaki, and Takeshi
Kambara.
Department of Applied Physics and Chemistry, The University of
Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo, 182; Advanced Research
Laboratory, Hitachi, Limited, Hatoyama, Saitama 350-03; Applied
Mathematics Laboratory,The Nippon Dental University, Fujimi,
Chiyodaku, Tokyo 102, Japan
APStracts 3:0014C, 1996.
Coupling between ionic flows through different kinds of channels
affects essentially the responses of multisensitive taste cells to
single and mixed taste stimuli. The mechanism of taste transduction
is studied by using a realistic model of the multisensitive cells of
the rat. The transduction pathways considered are amiloride sensitive
Na+ channels for NaCl and HCl, and cAMP mediating K+ channels for
sucrose. Contributions of paracellular pathways and taste insensitive
ionic channels are also studied. The calculated responses of various
multisensitive cells induced by single stimuli of NaCl, HCl, or
sucrose reproduce experimentally observed responses as well. The two
main conclusions are as follows. Whether the response of a cell to a
binary mixture becomes synergetic or antagonistic can be estimated
from the individual responses of the cell to each component of the
mixture. Whether the response is enhanced or suppressed by adding a
new taste to original one can be determined, for most receptive
cells, from a view point of linear superposition of the individual
responses.
Received 27 March 1995; accepted in final form 27 December 1995.
APS Manuscript Number C176-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 22 January 96