J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2011 Aug 8. [Epub ahead of print]
From The Tongue To The Gut.
* European Laboratory for Food Induced Diseases, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy † University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo-Bra (CN), Italy.
Abstract
ABSTRACT:
The physiology of human taste enjoyed an unprecedented expansion of
knowledge brought forward by modern genetics and molecular biology. In
the last 10 years the cellular organization of taste receptors from
taste buds distributed in the various papillae of the tongue and the
soft palate was enlightened. This molecular revolution rapidly expanded
over and above the tongue, since several papers reporting the presence of taste receptors in non-gustatory tissues (like the gut and the brain)
appeared. Hence the issue of perception of food molecules is not
anymore confined to the field of nutrition and food preferences, but is
rapidly expanding to gastrointestinal function and, possibly, to gut
dysfunction too. In children functional gastrointestinal diseases are strictly correlated to food preference and food aversion
and up to now the tools to face these kind of problems were the basic
nutritional requirements, familial good sense and a lot of patience:
blunt tools to face very common and disturbing complaints. The
fact that taste receptors are expressed down the whole of intestinal
tract is of particular interest, because of their possible role in
digestive behavior and absorption of nutrients; therefore
recent and future discoveries in this field will make possible to
fine-tune new, sharper tools to face children with functional
gastrointestinal diseases.
- PMID:
- 21832948
- [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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