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Published on: November 29, 2013
Orosensory Detection of Dietary Fatty Acids Is Altered in CB₁R-/- Mice
Léa Brissard1, Julia Leemput2, Aziz Hichami3
1Physiology of Nutrition and Toxicology (NUTox), INSERM UMR U1231, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté/Agro-Sup, 21000 Dijon, France. Lea.Brissard@u-bourgogne.fr.
Abstract:
Obesity is one of the major public health issues, and its prevalence is steadily increasing all the world over. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) has been shown to be involved in the intake of palatable food via activation of cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB₁R). However, the involvement of lingual CB₁R in the orosensory perception of dietary fatty acids has never been investigated. In the present study, behavioral tests on CB₁R-/- and wild type (WT) mice showed that the invalidation of Cb₁r gene was associated with low preference for solutions containing rapeseed oil or a long-chain fatty acid (LCFA), such as linoleic acid (LA). Administration of rimonabant, a CB₁R inverse agonist, in mice also brought about a low preference for dietary fat. No difference in CD36 and GPR120 protein expressions were observed in taste bud cells (TBC) from WT and CB₁R-/- mice. However, LCFA induced a higher increase in [Ca2+]i in TBC from WT mice than that in TBC from CB₁R-/- mice. TBC from CB₁R-/- mice also exhibited decreased Proglucagon and Glp-1r mRNA and a low GLP-1 basal level. We report that CB₁R is involved in fat taste perception via calcium signaling and GLP-1 secretion.
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