Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on February 7, 2008
Chemical Senses 2008 33(4):311-318; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm095
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Regional Specificity of Chlorhexidine Effects on Taste Perception
1 Department of Biology, University of Hartford, CT 06117, USA 2 New York University College of Dentistry, New York, NY 10010, USA 3 Center for Neurosciences, Department of Oral Health and Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030-1715, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Marion E. Frank, Center for Neurosciences, Department of Oral Health and Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030-1715, USA. e-mail: mfrank{at}neuron.uchc.edu
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Abstract |
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Chlorhexidine (CHX) gluconate, a bitter bis-biguanide antiseptic, reduces the intensity of the salty taste of NaCl and bitter taste of quinine in humans. This study addresses regional specificity of CHX's effects on taste. Perceptual intensity and quality were measured for separate taste bud containing oral loci innervated either by afferent fibers of cranial nerve (CN) VII or CN IX. Measurements were obtained following three 1-min oral rinses with either 1.34 mM CHX or water, the control rinse. CHX rinse reduced the intensity of NaCl more at the tongue tip and palate than at posterior oral sites. Thus, fungiform and palatal salt-taste receptors may differ from salt-taste receptors of the foliate and circumvallate taste papillae. The intensity of quinine·HCl was reduced equally by CHX at all sites tested but was frequently tasteless on the less sensitive anterior sites, suggesting quinine receptor diversity. In rodents, a portion of NaCl-taste receptors in the receptive field of CN VII is sensitive to the epithelial Na+ channel blocker amiloride and a portion is amiloride insensitive; all CN IX receptors are amiloride insensitive. The current results are the first to suggest that there may also be distinct, regionally specific populations of NaCl-taste receptors in humans.
Key words: bitter taste, facial nerve, glossopharyngeal nerve, palatal taste, salt taste, taste papillae
Accepted 22 October 2007
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