title: Biosensor analysis of natural and artificial sweeteners in intact taste epithelium.
abstract: Sweeteners are commonly used as food additives in our daily life, which, however, have been causing a number of undesirable diseases since the last century. Therefore, the detection and quantification of sweeteners are of great value for food safety. In this study, we used a taste biosensor to measure and analyze different sweeteners, both natural and artificial sweeteners included. Electrophysiological activities from taste epithelium were detected by the multi-channel biosensors and analyzed with spatiotemporal methods. The longtime signal result showed different temporal-frequency properties with stimulations of individual sweeteners such as glucose, sucrose, saccharin, and cyclamate, while the multi-channel results in our study revealed the spatial expression of taste epithelium to sweet stimuli. Furthermore, in the analysis of sweetener with different concentrations, the result showed obvious dose-dependent increases in signal responses of the taste epithelium, which indicated promising applications in sweetness evaluation. Besides, the mixture experiment of two natural sweeteners with a similar functional unit (glucose and sucrose) presented two signal patterns, which turned out to be similar with responses of each individual stimulus involved. The biosensor analysis of common sweeteners provided new approaches for both natural and artificial sweeteners evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Fenni
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Diming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, PR China. Electronic address: qjliu@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qingjun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, PR China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003494:Cyclamates / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D004848:Epithelium / Q000502:physiology; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008839:Microelectrodes; D012439:Saccharin / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D013395:Sucrose / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D013649:Taste; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D003494:Cyclamates; D013549:Sweetening Agents; D013395:Sucrose; D012439:Saccharin
keywords: Artificial sweetener; Biosensor; Microelectrodes; Natural sugar; Taste epithelium