Abstract：
A microfluidic tongue-on-a-chip platform has been evaluated relative to the known sensory properties of various sweeteners. Analogous metrics of typical sensory features reported by human panels such as sweet taste thresholds, onset, and lingering, as well as bitter off-flavor and blocking interactions were deduced from the taste receptor activation curves and then compared. To this end, a flow cell containing a receptor cell array bearing the sweet and six bitter taste receptors was transiently exposed to pure and mixed sweetener samples. The sample concentration gradient across time was separately characterized by the injection of fluorescein dye. Subsequently, cellular calcium responses to different doses of advantame, aspartame, saccharine, and sucrose were overlaid with the concentration gradient. Parameters describing the response kinetics compared to the gradient were quantified. Advantame at 15 μM recorded a significantly faster sweetness onset of 5 ± 2 s and a longer lingering time of 39 s relative to sucrose at 100 mM with an onset of 13 ± 2 s and a lingering time of 6 s. Saccharine was shown to activate the bitter receptors TAS2R8, TAS2R31, and TAS2R43, confirming its known off-flavor, whereas addition of cyclamate reduced or blocked this saccharine bitter response. The potential of using this tongue-on-a-chip to bridge the gap with in vitro assays and taste panels is discussed.
摘要：
已经相对于各种甜味剂的已知感官特性评估了微流体片上舌平台。人类小组报告的典型感官特征的类似指标，如甜味阈值，发病，挥之不去，从味觉受体激活曲线推导出苦味和阻断相互作用，然后进行比较。为此,将包含带有甜味和六种苦味受体的受体细胞阵列的流动池瞬时暴露于纯的和混合的甜味剂样品。通过注射荧光素染料来分别表征样品随时间的浓度梯度。随后，细胞钙对不同剂量的优势的反应，阿斯巴甜,糖精,和蔗糖用浓度梯度覆盖。定量描述与梯度相比的响应动力学的参数。与100mM的蔗糖相比，15μM的Advantame记录到5±2s的甜味起效明显更快，39s的滞留时间更长，起效时间为13±2s，滞留时间为6s。糖精被证明可以激活苦味受体TAS2R8，TAS2R31和TAS2R43，证实其已知的异味，而加入甜蜜素减少或阻断了这种糖精苦味反应。讨论了使用这种芯片上的舌头与体外测定和味觉小组弥合差距的潜力。
