Conductance Change Associated with Receptor Potentials of Gustatory Cells in Rat
Open Access
- 1 December 1971
- journal article
- Published by Rockefeller University Press in The Journal of general physiology
- Vol. 58 (6), 688-699
- https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.58.6.688
Abstract
The electrical properties of gustatory cells and cells which do not respond to chemical stimuli in the taste bud of fungiform papillae in rats were studied by means of intracellular microelectrodes. Neither of these cell types showed spike electrogenesis. Gustatory cells showed a depolarization, the receptor potential, associated with an increase in the membrane conductance in response to NaCl, sucrose, and HCl, whereas quinine produced a decrease in the conductance together with an increase in the receptor potential magnitude. The reversal point of the receptor potential in response to NaCl or KCl was close to zero membrane potential, but in the case of quinine it was at a more negative potential level than the resting potential. From these results two receptive processes are postulated in the gustatory cell membrane. When the gustatory cells were stimulated for a long duration by concentrated NaCl or sucrose, receptor potentials showed adaptation with decrease in magnitude, but adaptation of the responses to HCl and quinine were hardly detected. Adaptation of the receptor potential was not correlated with conductance change.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Slow Synaptic Excitation in Sympathetic Ganglion Cells: Evidence for Synaptic Inactivation of Potassium ConductanceScience, 1970
- Gustatory response and preference behavior in alloxan diabetic rats.1969
- The response of frog taste cells (Rana nigromaculata andRana catesbeana)Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 1969
- Membrane capacity and resistance of mammalian smooth muscleJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1966
- The membrane capacity of frog twitch and slow muscle fibres.The Journal of Physiology, 1965
- Electron microscope study of the developing taste bud in rat fungiform papillaDevelopmental Biology, 1965
- The Receptor Potential of the Taste Cell of the RatThe Journal of general physiology, 1964
- Microelectrode study of taste receptors of rat and hamsterJournal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology, 1961
- A THEORY OF TASTE STIMULATIONThe Journal of general physiology, 1954
- An analysis of the end‐plate potential recorded with an intra‐cellular electrodeThe Journal of Physiology, 1951