Sour Ageusia in Two Individuals Implicates Ion Channels of the ASIC and PKD Families in Human Sour Taste Perception at the Anterior Tongue

摘要: Background The perception of sour taste in humans is incompletely understood at the receptor cell level. We report here on two patients with an acquired ageusia. Each patient was unresponsive to stimuli, but both showed normal responses bitter, sweet, and salty stimuli. Methods findings Lingual fungiform papillae, containing cells, were obtained by biopsy from patients, three sour-normal individuals, analyzed RT-PCR. following transcripts undetectable even after 50 cycles amplification, readily detectable subjects: acid sensing ion channels (ASICs) 1a, 1beta, 2a, 2b, 3; polycystic kidney disease (PKD) PKD1L3 PKD2L1. Patients sour-normals expressed taste-related phospholipase C-beta2, delta-subunit epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) bitter T2R14, as well beta-actin. Genomic analysis one patient, using buccal tissue, did not show absence genes for ASIC1a Immunohistochemistry papillae subjects revealed labeling bud cells antibodies ASICs 1a PKD2L1, delta-ENaC. An antibody labeled tissue outside cells. Conclusions These data suggest a role PKDs human perception. This first ageusia humans, very existence such individuals ("natural knockouts") suggests lineage that independent other modalities.