title: Bioelectronic tongue of taste buds on microelectrode array for salt sensing.
abstract: Taste has received great attention for its potential applications. In this work, we combine the biological tissue with micro-chips to establish a novel bioelectronic tongue system for salt taste detection. Before experiment, we established a computational model of action potential in salt taste receptor cell, simulating the responsive results to natural salt stimuli of NaCl solution with various concentrations. Then 36-channel microelectrode arrays (MEA) with the diameter of 30 μm were fabricated on the glass substrate, and taste epithelium was stripped from rat and fixed on MEA. When stimulated by the salt stimuli, electrophysiological activities of taste receptor cells in taste buds were measured through a multi-channel recording system. Both simulation and experiment results showed a dose-dependent increase in NaCl-induced potentials of taste receptor cells, which indicated good applications in salt measurements. The multi-channel analysis demonstrated that different groups of MEA channels were activated during stimulations, indicating non-overlapping populations of receptor cells in taste buds involved in salt taste perception. The study provides an effective and reliable biosensor platform to help recognize and distinguish salt taste components.
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Qingjun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Fenni
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Diming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: K Jimmy
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Hsia
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D021522:Bioartificial Organs; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000295:instrumentation*; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D003217:Conductometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008839:Microelectrodes; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000032:analysis* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride