Abstract
It is widely recognized that smelling food results in a mouth-watering feeling and influences appetite. However, besides changes in volume, little is known about the effects that food odours have on the composition of saliva. The aim of the present study was to access the effects that smelling bread has on saliva proteome and to compare such effects with those of chewing and ingesting it. Besides a significant increase in saliva flow rate, together with a decrease in total protein concentration, bread odour induced changes in the proportion of different salivary proteins. The expression levels of two spots of cystatins and two spots of amylase increased due to olfactory stimulation, similar to what happened with bread mastication, suggesting that odour can allow anticipation of the type of food eaten and consequently the physiological oral changes necessary to that ingestion. An interesting finding was that bread odour increased the expression levels of several protein spots of immunoglobulin chains, which were decreased by both bread or rice mastication. This may be of clinical relevance since food olfactory stimulation of salivary immunoglobulins can be used to potentiate the oral immune function of saliva. Moreover, the effects of bread odour in the levels of salivary proteins, previously observed to be involved in oral food processing led to the hypothesis of an influence of this odour in the sensory perception of foods further ingested. Further studies are needed to elucidate this point, as well as whether the changes observed for bread odour are specific, or if different food odours lead to similar salivary proteome responses.
Highlights
Food sensory cues play a role in food acceptance and food choices in different ways
Activity saliva samples decreased when salivation was induced by odour, but did not change significantly due Salivary flow rate was increased by all types of stimuli tested
Further studies are necessary to understand the reason why an increase in these proteins levels occur in response to bread smelling, this effect of olfactory cues can be of clinical interest, helping the development of strategies to ameliorate oral immunological capacity. This is the first study showing the effect of food-olfactory stimulation in saliva proteome
Summary
Food sensory cues play a role in food acceptance and food choices in different ways. Associations between nutrient and energy content, as well as pleasure/comfort provided by foods are paired with their sensory characteristics. This learning will result in higher desire/consumption or in avoidance when such sensory signals are presented [1,2]. Different studies show the influence that the exposure to sensory cues has in wanting for food [3,4]. Among the pre-ingestive sensory cues, food odours are important modulators of appetite, influencing ingestive behaviour. Individuals can predict the characteristics of foods
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