A novel sweet taste cell-based sensor.

In this paper, a novel sweet taste cell-based sensor is proposed for tastants detection. The human colorectal carcinoma NCI-H716 cell lines, which express α-gustducin and sweet taste receptor T1R1/T1R3, are cultured on the carbon screen-printed electrode with the pre-coated poly-L-ornithine and lamimin for adhesion in extracellular matrix. The electrode is placed into a fluidic and environment regulation system. When stimulated by an electric field at a fixed frequency of 1 kHz and 10 μA, the electrochemical impedance spectrum data was recorded by EG&G 273A and high performance dual phase analog lock-in amplifier 5210 and processed by bistable stochastic resonance method. Four basic tastants and sucrose solutions in seven concentrations can be decided by maximums of the signal-to-noise ratio and relevant noise intensity. A negative control experiment utilizing COLO-205 cell lines demonstrate that carbon screen-printed electrode with mammalian cell line without the expression of gust TIR2 and TIR3 lacked the tastant detecting ability. The sensor system presents good stability and repeatability. The proposed sensor is promising for practical applications, and provides a novel way for taste mechanism investigation.