title: Sodium intake linked to amiloride-sensitive gustatory transduction in C57BL/6J and 129/J mice.
abstract: Mice of 129/J and C57BL/6J inbred strains received two-bottle, 48-h preference tests of NaCl solutions vs. distilled water. 129/J mice exhibited a greater preference for 0.08 M NaCl than did C57BL/6J mice. To determine if this strain difference was mediated by taste, the integrated neural responses of the chorda tympani nerve to a concentration range of NaCl and KCl were examined. Gustatory neural responses to NaCl were similar for 129/J and C57BL/6J mice. However, lingual application of 0.5 mM amiloride hydrochloride significantly suppressed chorda tympani responses to a range of NaCl concentrations in C57BL/6J mice but did not do so consistently in 129/J mice. Amiloride failed to significantly suppress responses to a range of KCl concentrations in both mouse strains. The results suggest that for 129/J mice, sodium reception and transduction are primarily amiloride insensitive, whereas for C57BL/6J mice, both amiloride-sensitive and amiloride-insensitive components are present. The strain difference in NaCl intake may be mediated, in part, through gustatory mechanisms, with reduced preference for NaCl influenced by amiloride-sensitive sodium transduction mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306-1051, USA.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Gannon
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Contreras
mesh_terms: D000584:Amiloride / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002814:Chorda Tympani Nerve / Q000187:drug effects; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000187:drug effects; D010641:Phenotype; D011189:Potassium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects*; D012982:Sodium, Dietary / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D012982:Sodium, Dietary; D011189:Potassium Chloride; D000584:Amiloride