I conducted electrophysiological work in C57BL/6J (B6) and PWD/PhJ (PWD)
mice, with the goal of providing insight into the genetic and physiological controls of
calcium intake. Prior behavioral preference tests indicated that PWD mice have higher
preferences for calcium compounds compared to B6 mice, though several mechanisms
could underlie this observation. I therefore measured taste-evoked chorda tympani (CT)
responses in B6 and PWD mice, in order to investigate the specific role of taste
sensation. A second experiment was conducted to investigate the role of the calciumsensing
receptor (CaSR) is in gustatory transduction of calcium ions, using the CaSR
agonist glutathione. In experiment 1, responses were significantly larger in PWD than B6
mice for CaCl2, MgCl2, citric acid and quinine, but did not differ between the strains for
sucrose, KCl and NaCl. These strain differences in CT responses were especially large
for tonic, rather than phasic, responding. These data suggest that differences in peripheral
events, such as taste transduction, contribute to differences between B6 and PWD mice in
preferences for taste solutions such as CaCl2. In experiment 2, glutathione at 100 μM had
negligible effects on taste-evoked CT responses, which does not support a role for CaSR
in mediating taste transduction of calcium ions. / Department of Physiology and Health Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:123456789/194730 |
| Date | 07 July 2011 |
| Creators | Cherukuri, Chandra M. |
| Contributors | Javed, Najma H. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
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