Chemical Senses Vol. 30 No. suppl 1 © Oxford University
Press 2005; all rights reserved
Gap Junctions among Taste Bud Cells in Mouse Fungiform Papillae
Graduate school of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Wakamatsu-Ku, Kitakyushu 808-0196, Japan
Correspondence to be sent to: Kiyonori Yoshii, e-mail: yoshii@brain.kyutech.ac.jp
Key words: cell-networks, dye-coupling, in situ patch clamp
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Introduction |
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Mouse taste buds in fungiform papillae consist of
50 cells (TBCs; unpublished
data), but only a few of them have synaptic contacts with taste nerves (Kinnamon et al., 1993
;
Seta and Toyoshima, 1995). Neither
chemical nor electrical synapses/gap junctions have been confirmed in mammalian taste
buds, though a subpopulation of TBCs expressed a variety of neurotransmitter receptors
(Kumazawa et al., 2001;
Hayato et al., 2002).
Non-innervated TBCs thus have been assumed to be supportive. However, we considered their
roles in taste transduction.
We tested this hypothesis under in situ whole-cell patch clamp and optical
recording conditions (Ohtubo et al.,
2001). Patch clamp studies showed that a part of TBCs generated depolarizing
or
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Materials and methods |
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Peeled lingual epithelia
Detection of dye-couplings
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Results and discussion |
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Dye couplings
Junctional conductance
TBC networks
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