Reduced number of taste papillae in patients with eating disorders.

Taste affects dietary behavior and in turn taste response and food preferences are altered in eating disorders. Fungiform papillae on the tongue are the first line of the gustatory apparatus to provide information about taste. Aim of this study is determination of their number in patients with eating disorders. Twenty-seven female adolescents with eating disorders and 16 age-matched healthy female controls were examined. Tongues were stained with blue food coloring and the number of fungiform papillae was quantified using digital photography and image processing. Patients with restrictive type eating disorders showed a more distinct reduction (p < 0.001) of fungiform papillae than patients with vomiting and/or binge eating (p < 0.05), compared with those of healthy control subjects. Causes may be an initially disturbed development of fungiform papillae or secondary to changes in eating behavior which may be mutually causative.