Figure 3.

Expression and function of fatty acid signaling elements in male and female mice. A: bars depict mean ± SE gene expression relative to the internal calibrator TrpM5 during early phases of the estrous cycle in fungiform papillae of 3 independent biological replicates, using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene in male and female groups of fungiform and vallate taste cells. Letters (a,b,c,d) above bars indicate statistical grouping variables determined using two-way ANOVA corrected for multiple comparisons using Tukey–Kramer method. B: dose-response profiles for linoleic acid (LA) in males, females in early and late stages of the estrous cycle, and ovariectomized (OVX) females. Changes in intracellular calcium ([Ca²⁺]_i) in response to perfusion with LA (0.1 μM to100 μM) were measured by ratiometric Fura 2-based imaging, and area under the curve (AUC) measurements were calculated during stimulus response. One-way ANOVA with Tukey–Kramer method for post hoc multiple comparisons was used to compare the groups. Sigmoidal curves were fitted using normalized response data points in GraphPad Prism. All data are presented as means ± SE. The EC₅₀ for male, females in early estrous phases, females in late estrous phases, and OVX females were 37.9, 30.4, 30.8, and 31.5 µM, respectively.