Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Logo for

PNAS 97 (20): 11044-11049

Copyright © 2000 by the National Academy of Sciences.

Neurobiology
 Leptin as a modulator of sweet taste sensitivities in mice

Kirio Kawai*, Kumiko Sugimoto*, Kiyohito Nakashimadagger , Hirohito MiuraDagger , and Yuzo Ninomiya§,

* Section of Molecular Neurobiology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8549, Japan; dagger  Department of Chemistry, Asahi University School of Dentistry, 1851-1 Hozumi, Motosu-gun, Gifu 501-0296, Japan; Dagger  National Food Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8642, Japan; and § Section of Oral Neuroscience, Faculty of Dentistry, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka-Pref. 812-8582, Japan

Edited by Dale Purves, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and approved July 19, 2000 (received for review February 15, 2000)

Leptin acts as a potent inhibitory factor against obesity by regulating energy expenditure, food intake, and adiposity. The obese diabetic db/db mouse, which has defects in leptin receptor, displays enhanced neural responses and elevated behavioral preference to sweet stimuli. Here, we show the effects of leptin on the peripheral taste system. An administration of leptin into lean mice suppressed responses of peripheral taste nerves (chorda tympani and glossopharyngeal) to sweet substances (sucrose and saccharin) without affecting responses to sour, salty, and bitter substances. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of activities of taste receptor cells isolated from circumvallate papillae (innervated by the glossopharyngeal nerve) demonstrated that leptin activated outward K+ currents, which resulted in hyperpolarization of taste cells. The db/db mouse with impaired leptin receptors showed no such leptin suppression. Taste tissue (circumvallate papilla) of lean mice expressed leptin-receptor mRNA and some of the taste cells exhibited immunoreactivities to antibodies of the leptin receptor. Taken together, these observations suggest that the taste organ is a peripheral target for leptin, and that leptin may be a sweet-sensing modulator (suppressor) that may take part in regulation of food intake. Defects in this leptin suppression system in db/db mice may lead to their enhanced peripheral neural responses and enhanced behavioral preferences for sweet substances.

To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: nino{at}dent.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Regionally Specific Cortical Thinning in Children with Sickle Cell Disease.
G. R. Kirk, M. R. Haynes, S. Palasis, C. Brown, T. G. Burns, M. McCormick, and R. A. Jones (2008)
Cereb Cortex
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Altered Pontine Taste Processing in a Rat Model of Obesity.
P. Kovacs and A. Hajnal (2008)
J Neurophysiol 100, 2145-2157
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Diurnal Variation of Human Sweet Taste Recognition Thresholds Is Correlated With Plasma Leptin Levels.
Y. Nakamura, K. Sanematsu, R. Ohta, S. Shirosaki, K. Koyano, K. Nonaka, N. Shigemura, and Y. Ninomiya (2008)
Diabetes 57, 2661-2665
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The taste transduction channel TRPM5 is a locus for bitter-sweet taste interactions.
K. Talavera, K. Yasumatsu, R. Yoshida, R. F. Margolskee, T. Voets, Y. Ninomiya, and B. Nilius (2008)
FASEB J 22, 1343-1355
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Abnormal Taste Perception in Mice Lacking the Type 3 Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor.
C. Hisatsune, K. Yasumatsu, H. Takahashi-Iwanaga, N. Ogawa, Y. Kuroda, R. Yoshida, Y. Ninomiya, and K. Mikoshiba (2007)
J. Biol. Chem. 282, 37225-37231
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Regulation of feeding behaviour and locomotor activity by takeout in Drosophila.
N. Meunier, Y. H. Belgacem, and J.-R. Martin (2007)
J. Exp. Biol. 210, 1424-1434
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Taste Responsiveness of Fungiform Taste Cells With Action Potentials.
R. Yoshida, N. Shigemura, K. Sanematsu, K. Yasumatsu, S. Ishizuka, and Y. Ninomiya (2006)
J Neurophysiol 96, 3088-3095
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Trpm5 Null Mice Respond to Bitter, Sweet, and Umami Compounds.
S. Damak, M. Rong, K. Yasumatsu, Z. Kokrashvili, C. A. Perez, N. Shigemura, R. Yoshida, B. Mosinger Jr., J. I. Glendinning, Y. Ninomiya, et al. (2006)
Chem Senses 31, 253-264
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Fast Food, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity.
E. Isganaitis and R. H. Lustig (2005)
Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 25, 2451-2462
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Altered taste sensitivity in obese, prediabetic OLETF rats lacking CCK-1 receptors.
A. Hajnal, M. Covasa, and N. T. Bello (2005)
Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol 289, R1675-R1686
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A new role for leptin as a direct satiety signal from the stomach.
H.-R. Berthoud (2005)
Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol 288, R796-R797
   Full Text »    PDF »
A Strong Nerve Dependence of Sonic hedgehog Expression in Basal Cells in Mouse Taste Bud and an Autonomous Transcriptional Control of Genes in Differentiated Taste Cells.
H. Miura, H. Kato, Y. Kusakabe, M. Tagami, J. Miura-Ohnuma, Y. Ninomiya, and A. Hino (2004)
Chem Senses 29, 823-831
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Umami Taste Responses Are Mediated by {alpha}-Transducin and {alpha}-Gustducin.
W. He, K. Yasumatsu, V. Varadarajan, A. Yamada, J. Lem, Y. Ninomiya, R. F. Margolskee, and S. Damak (2004)
J. Neurosci. 24, 7674-7680
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Leptin Modulates Behavioral Responses to Sweet Substances by Influencing Peripheral Taste Structures.
N. Shigemura, R. Ohta, Y. Kusakabe, H. Miura, A. Hino, K. Koyano, K. Nakashima, and Y. Ninomiya (2004)
Endocrinology 145, 839-847
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Automatically Parcellating the Human Cerebral Cortex.
B. Fischl, A. van der Kouwe, C. Destrieux, E. Halgren, F. Segonne, D. H. Salat, E. Busa, L. J. Seidman, J. Goldstein, D. Kennedy, et al. (2004)
Cereb Cortex 14, 11-22
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Electrophysiological Heterogeneity in a Functional Subset of Mouse Taste Cells during Postnatal Development.
V. Ghiaroni, F. Fieni, P. Pietra, and A. Bigiani (2003)
Chem Senses 28, 827-833
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Calcium Signaling Mediated by P2Y Receptors in Mouse Taste Cells.
S. G. Baryshnikov, O. A. Rogachevskaja, and S. S. Kolesnikov (2003)
J Neurophysiol 90, 3283-3294
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Enhanced Responses of the Chorda Tympani Nerve to Sugars in the Ventromedial Hypothalamic Obese Rat.
Y. Shimizu, M. Yamazaki, K. Nakanishi, M. Sakurai, A. Sanada, T. Takewaki, and K. Tonosaki (2003)
J Neurophysiol 90, 128-133
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Neuropeptides modulate rat chorda tympani responses.
S. A. Simon, L. Liu, and R. P. Erickson (2003)
Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol 284, R1494-R1505
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Recovery of Amiloride-Sensitive Neural Coding during Regeneration of the Gustatory Nerve: Behavioral-Neural Correlation of Salt Taste Discrimination.
K. Yasumatsu, H. Katsukawa, K. Sasamoto, and Y. Ninomiya (2003)
J. Neurosci. 23, 4362-4368
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Expression and Physiological Actions of Cholecystokinin in Rat Taste Receptor Cells.
S. Herness, F.-l. Zhao, S.-g. Lu, N. Kaya, and T. Shen (2002)
J. Neurosci. 22, 10018-10029
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882)