Taste sensitivity in various strains of mice

Abstract

The present study was designed to elucidate the differences in taste sensitivity in various strains of mice, and to study the relationship between taste sensitivity and color of the fur. Taste thresholds for four kinds of taste substance, i.e., sodium chloride, saccharine, acetic acid, and phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), were measured with three black and three white strains of mice. Taste sensitivity in mice with hypofunction of the suprarenal body, thyroid gland, and liver was also studied to clarify the bearing of the functions of those organs on the sense of taste. The taste sensitivity of mice differed according to strain. A white strain (aa) showed the lowest taste thresholds for all substances tested, whereas a black strain (0–61) showed the highest. Other strains showed intermediate thresholds, the white strains showing lower ones except in the case of saccharine. Hypofunction of the suprarenal body, thyroid gland, and liver caused a rise in the taste thresholds: a) after cauterization of the suprarenal body, the threshold for acetic acid was raised, whereas those for other taste substances were unchanged; b) reduction of thyroid and hepatic functions resulted in a rise of the taste thresholds for saccharine, acetic acid, and PTC.