Flavor Sensing Bean Bois.

 

 

 In my quest of completing this assignment I procrastinated on, I decided to research silly things that sound insane, but it is true!

 First, your adipose tissue and taste buds are not the only parts of your body judging your late night ramen choices — your kidneys are judging you too! A 2017 study at Liang et all found that bitter taste receptors, the same ones we have on our tongue, are active and functional in our kidney tubular cells. T2R bitter taste receptors, a GPCRs receptor(not going away!), have shown that primary tubular epithelial cells express multiple T2R receptors which can respond to bitter compounds. When activated, they trigger intercellular calcium signaling, same on your tongue! This may influence functions of the kidneys, like fluid handling, electrolyte balance and tubular defence mechanisms. The kidney may be tasting bitter compounds to help protect the body by altering how it concentrates urine or handles solutes. Like the chemicals like cyanide, it tastes bitter — which may allow it to be a early warning signal for the body. For research, taste receptors in the kidneys could be targets for drugs that alter sodium handling, fluid balance, or blood pressure. 

So, when you are raiding your pantry studying for our finals, think about your poor kidneys and all the hard work that they do! 

Liang, J., Chen, F., Gu, F., Liu, X., Li, F., & Du, D. (2017). Expression and functional activity of bitter taste receptors in primary renal tubular epithelial cells and M-1 cells. Molecular and cellular biochemistry, 428(1-2), 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-016-2929-1