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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on October 25, 2007
Chemical Senses 2008 33(2):125-135; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm071
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Rapid Changes in Gustatory Function Induced by Contralateral Nerve Injury and Sodium Depletion

Pamela Lea Wall and Lynnette Phillips McCluskey

Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, 1120 15th Street, CA-3016, Augusta, GA 30912, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Lynnette Phillips McCluskey, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, 1120 15th Street, CA-3016, Augusta, GA 30912, USA. e-mail: lmccluskey{at}mcg.edu


  Abstract

The combination of dietary sodium depletion and unilateral chorda tympani (CT) nerve section decreases sodium taste function in the intact CT nerve. However, functional changes have not been examined prior to day 4 postsectioning, even though degenerative and inflammatory responses are robust during that period. Rats received unilateral CT section and/or dietary sodium depletion, accomplished by 2 injections of furosemide and a sodium-restricted diet, on day 0. Surgical controls received sham nerve sectioning. At days 1, 2, 3, or 4, taste responses were recorded from the intact nerve. Functional changes were rapid and unexpected. At day 1 postsectioning, neural responses from the uninjured CT of both control-fed and sodium-depleted animals were reduced. By day 2, however, normal function was restored in control-fed rats, whereas functional deficits persisted in depleted animals. Sodium depletion alone also induced a transient decrease in sodium responses at days 2–3 after furosemide injection. These results demonstrate that distant neural injury can elicit gustatory plasticity regardless of the dietary environment, but normal responses can be restored. We suggest that neutrophils mediate the initial postinjury deficits in taste function, whereas macrophages promote the recovery of normal function.

Key words: amiloride, chorda tympani nerve, neural degeneration, neural plasticity, neurophysiology

Accepted 22 September 2007


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