Research article

Qualitative and quantitative differences between taste buds of the rat and mouse

Huazhi Ma^1,2,3 , Ruibiao Yang^1,2 , Stacey M Thomas^1,2 and John C Kinnamon^1,2

¹Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80210, USA

²Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center, Aurora, Colorado 80045, USA

³Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Beijing 100850, China

author email corresponding author email

BMC Neuroscience 2007, 8:5doi:10.1186/1471-2202-8-5

Published:	5 January 2007

Abstract

Background

Numerous electrophysiological, ultrastructural, and immunocytochemical studies on rodent taste buds have been carried out on rat taste buds. In recent years, however, the mouse has become the species of choice for molecular and other studies on sensory transduction in taste buds. Do rat and mouse taste buds have the same cell types, sensory transduction markers and synaptic proteins? In the present study we have used antisera directed against PLCβ2, α-gustducin, serotonin (5-HT), PGP 9.5 and synaptobrevin-2 to determine the percentages of taste cells expressing these markers in taste buds in both rodent species. We also determined the numbers of taste cells in the taste buds as well as taste bud volume.

Results

There are significant differences (p < 0.05) between mouse and rat taste buds in the percentages of taste cells displaying immunoreactivity for all five markers. Rat taste buds display significantly more immunoreactivity than mice for PLCβ2 (31.8% vs 19.6%), α-gustducin (18% vs 14.6%), and synaptobrevin-2 (31.2% vs 26.3%). Mice, however, have more cells that display immunoreactivity to 5-HT (15.9% vs 13.7%) and PGP 9.5 (14.3% vs 9.4%). Mouse taste buds contain an average of 85.8 taste cells vs 68.4 taste cells in rat taste buds. The average volume of a mouse taste bud (42,000 μm³) is smaller than a rat taste bud (64,200 μm³). The numerical density of taste cells in mouse circumvallate taste buds (2.1 cells/1000 μm³) is significantly higher than that in the rat (1.2 cells/1000 μm³).

Conclusion

These results suggest that rats and mice differ significantly in the percentages of taste cells expressing signaling molecules. We speculate that these observed dissimilarities may reflect differences in their gustatory processing.