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Nutritional status alters the mRNA expressions of galanin and its receptors in taste buds of rats

CHEN Ke¹, YAN Jian-Qun^1,*, SUN Bo¹, LUO Xiao¹, WANG Nan¹, LYU Bo²

¹Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi’an 710061, China；²School of Humanities, Xidian University, Xi’an 710126, China

Abstract

The nutritional and metabolic status alters the peripheral taste perception and food intake by participating in the modulation of taste information integration. The taste receptors and neuropeptides in the taste buds are the important targets of this modulation process. To explore the effects of nutritional status on the expressions of galanin and its receptors in the taste buds, we compared the mRNA levels of galanin and its specific receptor GalR2 in the taste buds among the high-fat diet induced obese rats (HF), chronically restricted diet rats (CR) and control rats. The high-fat diet, half of chow diet, and normal chow diet were given to HF, CR and control groups for 6 weeks, respectively. The body weight and some metabolic indexes, including blood glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol levels were detected. The mRNA expressions of galanin and its receptors in taste buds were determined using real-time PCR. Results showed that compared with control rats, the body weights, levels of blood glucose and triglyceride were significantly elevated in HF rats; while the mRNA expressions of galanin and GalR2 were dramatically decreased. However, galanin mRNA expression in CR rats was increased to 2.3 times of that in control group. Considering the results obtained from our previous studies, we conclude that the behavioral changes in tasting choice of HF rats may be related to the expressions of galanin and GalR2 in the taste buds. The changes of galanin and GalR2 in taste buds are involved in the peripheral mechanism of nutritional status regulating taste perception and feeding behavior in rats.

Key words: high-fat diet; obesity; galanin; taste buds; rats

Received: 2018-04-02　　Accepted: 2018-09-05

Corresponding author: 闫剑群　　E-mail: jqyan810@163.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2018.0079

Citing This Article：

CHEN Ke, YAN Jian-Qun, SUN Bo, LUO Xiao, WANG Nan, LYU Bo. Nutritional status alters the mRNA expressions of galanin and its receptors in taste buds of rats. Acta Physiol Sin 2019; 71 (2): 294-300 (in Chinese with English abstract).