6533b81ffe1ef96bd1277955

RESEARCH PRODUCT

[Thu-P1-055] Influence of fermented food consumption on taste and oral microbiota of rats

subject

description

Oral microbiota varies throughout the individual’s life. These changes are due to several factors (environmental, physiological, lifestyle...) that shape its diversity and composition. However, little is known about the physiological impact of this persistence. Taste perception is one of the possible targeted functions. Indeed, our team has recently established relationships between oral microbiota and taste sensitivity in humans. The objective of this work was to see if fermented food bacteria were able to persist in the oral cavity and consequently influence the oral microbiota and the taste by using a rodent experimental design: two groups of rats (n=27/group) were fed for 3 weeks with experimental cheeses containing live or dead bacteria. Rat saliva was collected weekly for bacterial composition analysis (qPCR and 16S rRNA sequencing). Taste sensitivity was evaluated using the 2 bottles test method with 4 decreasing sucrose concentrations. First results, we found that 1/3 of the rats who consumed cheese with alive bacteria have these bacteria transiently in their oral cavity. However, their sucrose taste sensitivity was not significantly affected by comparing with rats without cheese bacteria persistence. This work shows that fermented food can modulate temporarily the composition of rat oral microbiota without leading to changes in the sucrose perception. However, this work needs to be reinforced by performing a longer exposure and by investigating the sensitivity to other tastes.