title: Umami evaluation in taste epithelium on microelectrode array by extracellular electrophysiological recording.
abstract: Umami is one of the basic tastes along with sweet, bitter, sour and salty. It is often elicited by amino acids and can provide a palatable flavor for food. With taste epithelium as the sensing element, microelectrodes can be used to evaluate umami taste by biological responses of the tissue. The electrophysiological activities to umami stimuli are measured with a 60-channel microelectrode array (MEA). Local field potential (LFP) recorded by a MEA system showed different temporal characteristics respectively with l-glutamic acid (l-Glu), l-aspartic acid (l-Asp), l-monosodium glutamate (l-MSG) and l-monosodium aspartate (l-MSA), while remarkable differences were observed between amino acids and their sodium salts. We also found that a dose-dependent behavior in the increasing concentrations of umami stimulations and a synergistic enhancement between amino acids and purine nucleotides can be detected. The investigation of this evaluation for umami represents a promising approach for distinguishing and evaluating umami tastants.
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Diming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fenni
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Qingjun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods*; D004848:Epithelium / Q000378:metabolism; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012970:Sodium Glutamate / Q000737:chemistry; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D009711:Nucleotides; D001224:Aspartic Acid; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D012970:Sodium Glutamate
keywords: Cell and tissue based biosensor; Local field potential (LFP); Microelectrode array (MEA); Taste epithelium; Umami chemical