GPR120 agonists enhance the fatty orosensation when added to fat-containing system, but do not evoke it by themselves in humans.

Dietary fat, an important macronutrient, has been considered to be perceived by texture and olfaction. Recently, fatty acid transporter, CD36, and fatty acid receptor, GPR120 are considered to be involved in human gustatory fatty acids perception in humans. However, limited information is currently available to show that agonists of CD36 and GPR120 evoke fatty oral sensations regarding to dietary fat in humans. Therefore, the role of GPR120 agonists in dietary fat perception in humans was investigated herein. An emulsion prepared from vegetable oil had a stronger fatty orosensation, an orosensation similar to an oily mouth-coating sensed 5 - 10 s after tasting, than that prepared from mineral oil; however, the physical properties of both emulsions, such as viscosity, particle distribution, interfacial tension, contact angle, frictional load, and ζ-electric potential were similar. The potent GPR120 agonist, TUG-891 enhanced the fatty orosensation when added to the emulsion prepared from vegetable oil, but not to that from mineral oil. All GPR120 agonists tested enhanced the fatty orosensation when added to a low-fat food system whereas they did not evoke any fatty sensation in aqueous solution at the concentrations tested in food system, and sensory activity positively correlated with GPR120 activity. These results suggest that GPR120 agonists enhance the fatty orosensation in humans when added to vegetable oil or a low-fat food system, but do not evoke it by themselves.