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Taste receptors(1) in the lungs(2)? Researchers(3) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have discovered that bitter(4) taste receptors are not just located in the mouth but also in human lungs. What they learned about the role of the receptors could revolutionize(5) the treatment of asthma(6) and other obstructive lung diseases(7).

“The detection(8) of functioning taste receptors on smooth muscle(9) of the bronchus(10) in the lungs was so unexpected that we were at first(11) quite skeptical(12) ourselves,” says the study’s senior author(13), Stephen B. Liggett, M.D.(14), professor of medicine and physiology(15) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, director of the Cardiopulmonary(16) Genomics(17) Program, and Associate Dean(18) for Interdisciplinary(19) Research.

Dr. Liggett, a pulmonologist(20), says his team found the taste receptors by accident(21) during an earlier, unrelated(22) study of human lung muscle receptors that regulate(23) airway contraction(24) and relaxation(25). The airways are the pathways(26) that move air in and out of the lungs, one of several critical steps in the process of delivering oxygen(27) to cells(28) throughout the body. In asthma, the smooth muscle airways contract(29) or tighten(30), impeding(31) the flow of air, causing wheezing(32) and shortness of breath(33).

The taste receptors in the lungs are the same as those on the tongue(34). The tongue’s receptors are clustered(35) in taste buds(36), which send signals to the brain(37). The researchers say that in the lung, the taste receptors are not clustered in buds and do not send signals to the brain, yet they respond to(38) substances that have a bitter taste.