味觉的细胞生物学研究进展

味蕾是咪感觉器官。在哺乳动物中味蕾主要分布在舌上皮中。味蕾中存在基细胞、亮细胞、暗细胞和中间细胞四种类型，蕾内神经纤维和蕾周神经纤维共同支配味蕾。利用免疫组织化学技术，能在功能上对味细胞和味觉神经纤维进行分类和鉴定。味蕾组织染色方法在舌面拓扑学和味觉系统发育研究中起着重要作用。分离出单个的味蕾细胞是研究受体细胞传导味觉机理的手段。味蕾组织培养对于研究味觉神经支配提供了有效的模型。文章介绍了味觉细胞生物学研究中的两个热点争议问题：味蕾细胞分化路线和味感觉细胞的鉴定，并探讨了形成分歧的原因。

Advances on Taste Cell Biology

Taste buds are the anatomical structures that medicate the sense of taste. They comprise taste cells and nerve fibers within specialized epithelial structures. Taste cells are traditionally described by histologic methods as basal, dark, intermediate, and light cells, with the nerve fibers surrounding and infiltrating the taste buds. By means of immunohistochemical methods, taste cells and gustatory nerve fibers can be classified in functional groups based on the expression of various cell adhesion molecules and other proteins. Two mainly disputed problems are elucidated, namely lineage of taste buds cells and identification of taste receptor cells.