Binding to taste papillae

Fig. 39.—Binding of Sugars to Taste Papillae versus Behavioral Taste-preferences of Bovines. ° ...

Fig. 40.—Inactivation of Binding of [ C]Sucrose to Taste Papillae by Heating in Boiling...

The binding specificity of d-[ C]glucose by the taste-papillae membranes, compared to that of control membranes isolated from epithelial tissue, has been confirmed in two studies. One inherent problem in the approach is that the stimuli, primarily carbohydrate sweeteners, are not ideal model compounds to use, as they are not active at low concentrations and do not show sufficiently high binding-constants. The use of other stimulus compounds that are at least several hundred times sweeter than sucrose, such as saccharin, dihydrochalcone sweeteners, dipeptide sweeteners, stevioside, perillartine and other sweet oximes, the 2-substituted 5-nitroanilines, and... 

Humans have 2,000 to 5,000 taste buds foxmd scattered over the surface of the tongue in small projections known as papillae (bumps). Each taste bud contains about 50 to 150 taste receptor cells that are relatively selective for the taste that they sense. Chemical stimuli interact with the membranes of taste receptor cells either by binding to membrane receptors (proteins with selective binding sites) or by directly changing the number of ions flowing across the membrane. 

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