title: Expression of alpha-gustducin in the circumvallate papillae of taste buds of diabetic rats.
abstract: Taste impairment is a complication of Diabetes mellitus and some studies have shown this taste disorder in diabetes. Diabetes can decrease the ability of individuals to detect and recognize sweet, salty and bitter tastes. alpha-Gustducin is a transducin-like G-protein selectively expressed in 20 - 30% of taste receptor cells, which has been shown to be involved in bitter, sweet and umami taste responses. The present study was performed to explore the protein and mRNA expression of alpha-gustducin in the taste buds of diabetic and control rat circumvallate papillae. Our results showed that the positive expression of alpha-gustducin in diabetic rat taste bud cells is higher than that in normal controls as shown by both immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. There may be some variant of bitter, sweet or umami taste transduction during diabetes and that taste transduction variant may be one cause of diabetic taste impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, The First Clinical Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Li-hong
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Xiao-min
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiao-hong
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Li-ou
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Guo-dong
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000150:complications*; D015870:Gene Expression; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000378:metabolism*; D013651:Taste Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015293:Transducin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; C075192:gustducin; D015293:Transducin