Objective: To investigate the effect of sensory or motor nerve damage to the tongue using a mouse model.
Study design: Animal study.
Setting: Research laboratory.
Subjects and methods: Adult male and female mice from inbred strains B6 (n = 19) and D2 (n = 25). Following lick training, bilateral lingual-chorda tympani nerve cuts (LX) (n = 6 B6, n = 7 D2), unilateral hypoglossal nerve cuts (HX) (n = 7 B6, n = 9 D2), or sham surgery (n = 6 B6, n = 9 D2) was performed. Mice were lick tested postsurgically with both water and sucrose (4 days total). Following testing, post mortem dissections and microscopic analysis of tongue papillae were performed.
Results: In both strains, HX and LX mice demonstrated a significant reduction in volume per lick (VPL) in the surgical groups relative to shams. Neither motor nor sensory nerve transection affected local lick rate. In most LX mice in both strains, taste papillae were reduced compared with HX or sham mice.
Conclusion: Mice of either strain with either a sensory or a motor nerve injury have a significant loss of VPL during ingestion of either a neutral (water) or preferred (sucrose) stimulus. This reduction in VPL reflects a deficit in licking. Lick rate was not affected by deafferentation. A reduction in fungiform papillae following LX but not HX mice was noted.