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| Poster #236 The Role of TRPM8 Function in Thermosensory Effects on Glucose Taste Preferences in Mice |
| Mehrnoush Nourbakhsh-Rey, Neville M. Ngum , Christian H. Lemon The University Of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States |
Oral thermosensation shapes perceptual and neural responses to tastes that are intricately linked to ingestive behavior and various human disorders. The transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) ion channel, a cold receptor on trigeminal fibers, plays a key role in oral thermosensory coding by driving oro-behavioral responses to cool and warm temperatures. Previous research from our lab showed that TRPM8-mediated thermal input establishes a neural coding breakpoint in trigeminal pathways, separating cool and warm temperature oral sensory processing. Our lab found that TRPM8-deficient mice, unlike wild-type B6 mice, exhibited behavioral generalization between mild cooling and warmth, displaying warmth-like oro-sensory responses to mild cool temperature water in a temperature-controlled brief-access licking test. However, the influence of TRPM8 in thermosensory effects on taste preference remains unclear. Therefore, we aim to examine the role of TRPM8 function during oral thermosensory-guided licking behavior and its influence on taste preference. In preliminary studies, we tested C57BL/6J (B6, n = 4) and TRPM8-deficient (n = 4) mice in brief-access tests with a room temperature concentration series (0, 100, 300, 500, and 1000 mM) of D-glucose and the non-metabolizable glucose analog α-methyl-D-glucopyranoside (MDG). Both mouse lines show concentration-dependent increases in licking to both stimuli (p <0.05). We will next use a thermo-lickometer to compare licking responses to glucose and MDG at cold (15°C) and mild cool (30°C) temperatures, in TRPM8-deficient and wild-type B6 mice. These experiments aim to elucidate TRPM8's role in integrating oral sensory-related thermal and metabolic signals. |