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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on May 16, 2008
Chemical Senses 2008 33(6):523-530; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjn019
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Mechanism of Enhancement of the Responses of the Frog Glossopharyngeal Nerve to Electrolytes by Enhancers

Kazuhisa Okuda-Akabane, Hideyuki Fukami and Yasuyuki Kitada

Department of Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry, Iwate Medical University, Morioka 020-8505, Japan

Correspondence to be sent to: Yasuyuki Kitada, Department of Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry, Iwate Medical University, Morioka 020-8505, Japan. e-mail: ykita{at}iwate-med.ac.jp


  Abstract

In frogs, the responses of the glossopharyngeal nerve (GL) to NaCl are enhanced after treatment of the tongue with 8-anilino-1-naphthalene-sulfonic acid (ANS), a hydrophobic probe for biological membranes. The enhancement by ANS treatment has been explained by removal of Ca2+ from the receptor membrane treated with ANS. To explore the mechanism of enhancement by ANS treatment, we recorded neural responses from the frog GL. After ANS treatment, treatment with 10 mM CaCl2 prior to stimulation of NaCl did not affect the enhanced responses to 100 mM NaCl. The response to a relatively high concentration of CaCl2 (50 mM) was enhanced after ANS treatment. It is difficult to interpret these neural events in terms of modulation of the responses by membrane-bound calcium. The presence of NiCl2 in stimulating solution is known as an enhancer. Neural events after ANS treatment were similar to those caused by NiCl2. Our previous studies have demonstrated that enhancement of the responses to electrolytes by NiCl2 is due to modulation of the responses of water fibers in the GL. Water fibers are characterized by sensitivity to water or CaCl2, and they also respond to relatively high concentrations of electrolytes such as NaCl and choline Cl. Using a suction electrode method, we recorded unitary impulses from single water fibers. The ANS treatment led greatly enhanced responses to NaCl or choline Cl in water fibers, suggesting that enhancement by the ANS treatment is due to modulation of the responses of water fibers as well as enhancement by NiCl2. It appears that distinct receptors for each separate cation responsible for the neural responses in water fibers interact with a membrane element that is affected by ANS or Ni2+.

Key words: enhancer, frog, glossopharyngeal nerve, taste neural response, water fiber

Accepted 9 April 2008


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