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Application Notes

Macroscopic and 3D imaging of small flower-like taste buds within the mouth by confocal microscopy 

March 2023

Which do you prefer, sweet or sour? Our sense of taste helps us enjoy our food while absorbing nutrients, and detects harmful substances before we ingest them. So how do we perceive taste?

Taste buds consist of taste cells that convert the chemical stimuli of taste into electrical signals. As the name implies, taste buds resemble flower buds in shape and are found in the tongue, the soft palate (soft muscle tissue at the back of the maxilla), and the larynx. Taste bud consists of 50-150 taste cells.

In this application note, we used the AX R confocal microscope to capture the structure of taste buds.