0000000000537866
AUTHOR
Patricia Degrace-passilly
CD36 and taste of fat.
Purpose of review This review explores the recent literature on the role of CD36 in the taste of fat, eating behavior and obesity risk in rodents and humans. Recent findings During the last decade, evidence was accumulated supporting the existence of a taste of fat responsible for the spontaneous preference for lipid-rich foods. Surprisingly, the multifunctional membrane-associated protein CD36 appears to play a significant role in this system in rodents. Recently, another plausible gustatory lipid sensor, the GPR120, was also identified in mice, revealing that the mechanism involved in oral fat detection is more complex than initially expected. Interestingly, lingual CD36 and GPR120 displa…
Do we taste fat?
Sense of taste informs the body about the quality of ingested foods. Five sub-modalities allowing the perception of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami stimuli are classically depicted. However, the inborn attraction of mammals for fatty foods raises the possibility of an additional oro-sensory modality devoted to fat perception. During a long time, dietary lipids were thought to be detected only by trigeminal (texture perception), retronasal olfactory, and post-ingestive cues. This minireview analyses recent findings showing that the gustation also plays a significant role in dietary lipid perception.