2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A study on the expression of villin in taste organs : establishment of the villin-immunoreactive cells as taste receptors.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15591951
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Morphological basic dentistry
Research Institution	The Nippon Dental University
Principal Investigator	YOSHIE Sumio The Nippon Dental University, School of Dentistry at Niigata Department of Anatomy, Professor, 新潟歯学部, 教授 (30095278)
Project Period (FY)	2003 – 2004
Keywords	taste organs / receptor cell / villin / signal transduction molecules / immunohistochemistry / electron microscopy
Research Abstract	I investigated taste organs of 15 species of vertebrate animals from mammals to fish by mean of fluorescence immunohistochemistry for villin, which is a bridging molecule of the cytoskeletal protein, actin. Cells immunoreactive for villin appeared in the organs of all the species used in this study. In the frog taste organ, furthermore, villin-immunopositive cells were identified as receptor cells (Yoshie et al., 2003). Mammalian taste-bud cells immunostained for villin were concomitantly immunoreactive for IP3R-3, PLCβ2, and gustducin. The electron-microscopic immunocytochemistry for villin in rats exhibited that type I and type II cells were exclusively immunostained. Considering these results, the villin-immunostained cells were postulated to function as taste receptors.

(4 results)