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  • Review Article
  • Published:

The endocrinology of taste receptors

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 11, pages 213–227 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Despite knowing that overeating is harmful, many people who are overweight are unable to control their food intake

  • The satisfaction, or hedonic response, gained from eating overcomes satiety feedback mechanisms

  • Hormones produced in taste cells in the tongue modify the intensity of taste perception; leptin modifies neurological hedonic responses to eating and the intensity of sweet perception

  • Localization of taste receptors is not restricted to taste cells and the roles of these receptors in other physiological functions are being investigated

  • Obesity and/or overnutrition (chronic excess energy states) might affect taste perception; individuals with obesity require increased amounts of tastants to elicit the same intensity of hedonic response as healthy individuals

  • Insight into how metabolic surgery results in weight loss and understanding of the role of gut microbiota in taste perception might reveal how taste perception and obesity are related

Abstract

Levels of obesity have reached epidemic proportions on a global scale, which has led to considerable increases in health problems and increased risk of several diseases, including cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, cancer and diabetes mellitus. People with obesity consume more food than is needed to maintain an ideal body weight, despite the discrimination that accompanies being overweight and the wealth of available information that overconsumption is detrimental to health. The relationship between energy expenditure and energy intake throughout an individual's lifetime is far more complicated than previously thought. An improved comprehension of the relationships between taste, palatability, taste receptors and hedonic responses to food might lead to increased understanding of the biological underpinnings of energy acquisition, as well as why humans sometimes eat more than is needed and more than we know is healthy. This Review discusses the role of taste receptors in the tongue, gut, pancreas and brain and their hormonal involvement in taste perception, as well as the relationship between taste perception, overeating and the development of obesity.

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Figure 1: Localization and structure of taste buds in the human tongue.
Figure 2: Expression of hormones and their receptors in the three subtypes of taste bud cells that perceive the five prototypic tastants, as well as fat.
Figure 3: Localization of selected hormones along the gut.
Figure 4: Relationship of organ systems with taste-sensing machinery.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIA/NIH. The authors wish to thank J. O'Connell, S. Walker, M. Rouse and M. Doyle for assistance with manuscript preparation and I. Gonzalez Mariscal for help with designing the figures.

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  1. Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute on Aging, NIH, Biomedical Research Center, Room 09B133, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Suite 100, Baltimore, 21224-6825, MD, USA

    Sara Santa-Cruz Calvo & Josephine M. Egan

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S.S.-C.C. and J.M.E. contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Calvo, SC., Egan, J. The endocrinology of taste receptors. Nat Rev Endocrinol 11, 213–227 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2015.7

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