Olfactory epithelium samples

The olfactory perception can be reinforced by sniffing i.e. by swirling the air intermittently over the ethmoid bone below the olfactory epithelium. The swirling effect causes the active components producing the smell to flow past the olfactory epithelium several times (instead of just once), thereby reinforcing the effect (particularly important in quality testing in the case of weak samples or samples with only very minor differences between them). 

Fig. 4 Expression profile of human OR genes across tissues and variation in three human samples. The log transformed detection P values for OR genes in all tissues were standardized to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 and are color coded (red and blue shades indicate values above and below the mean, respectively). The dendrograms on top of each panel illustrate the clustering of tissue samples based on the profile of OR gene expression, (a) All 578 predicted OR genes are included in a comparison between olfactory epithelium (OE) and non olfactory tissues, (b) Shown are the data for only the 147 OR genes with significantly elevated expression in non olfactory tissues, (c) The number of predicted human OR genes whose expression was detected (at P < 0.05) in one or more of the three olfactory epithelium (OE) samples. As can be seen, there is a substantial difference in the expressed OR gene repertoire of each of the three OE samples...

During these tracking studies we collected water samples from different stratified layers within the water column. These samples were then used to stimulate the olfactory epithelium of hatchery-reared fish while we measured electrical activity from single olfactory bulb neurons. Ninety per cent of the responding neurons, presumably mitral cells, showed differential responses to the water samples (Figure 3) demonstrating the capacity of the olfactory system to discriminate among stratified water layers found in the ocean. 

In the squamous/stratified epithelium covering, the palatal aperture of the N-P canals and the dorso-lateral surfaces of the papilla, there are occasional clusters of taste buds. These non-olfactory chemosensory elements are positioned at or near to the entrance to the AOS, suggesting that some initial chemosensation may arise from the sampling of material... 

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