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| Poster #234 The role of TRPM8 thermoreceptors and temperature in sweet taste preferences in mice |
| Kyle T. Zumpano, Neville M. Ngum, Mehrnoush Nourbakhsh_Rey, Christian H. Lemon University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States |
The role of transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) thermoreceptors in oral sensory preferences in rodents is beginning to be explored. Previous work from our lab has shown that TRPM8 contributes to warmth perception and loss leads to a “blurring” effect between cool and warm temperatures. It is unknown how TRPM8 signals contribute to taste preferences. Here, we studied the role of TRPM8 on sweet taste preferences in a thermal brief-access fluid licking assay. To test this, an initial squad of C57BL/6J (B6; n = 6) and TRPM8 gene deficient (M8 -/-; n = 6) mice were proffered temperature-controlled sucrose solutions in a custom thermo-lickometer at either low (0.1 M) or elevated (0.5 M) concentrations in combination with being precisely warmed (30°C) or cooled (15°). Six temperature-concentration pairings were counter-balanced across subjects and experimenters were blind to genotype. A second squad of mice (B6; n = 6, M8 -/-; n = 6) were proffered glucose under the same methodological conditions. Results show B6 mice preferred 0.5 M of either sweet stimulus at 30°C compared to 0.1M concentration at 15°C whereas the M8 -/- mice appeared indifferent (ANOVA, p <0.5). Secondly, B6 mice preferred 0.5 M sucrose over 0.1 M when both were 30°C. However, M8 -/- mice were indifferent to 0.1 M sucrose and 0.5 M at 30°C (ANOVA, p <0.5). This suggests that M8 -/- mice less prefer tastes at 30°C and may be “blurring” this temperature with warmer, more aversive temperatures, as suggested by a model in our prior study. These data, suggest that sweet taste preferences are influenced by temperature and highlights the role of TRPM8 in warm thermosensation. This experiment is ongoing, and further testing will be performed to increase the sample size. |