Abstracts - Association for Chemoreception Sciences

P O S T E R S
#P63 POSTER SESSION II:
OLFACTORY PHYSIOLOGY & CELL BIOLOGY;
TASTE MOLECULAR GENETICS;
CHEMESTHESIS & TRIGEMINAL
Chemical determinants of rat olfactory epithelium response
John W Scott, Lisa Sherrill
Emory University Atlanta, GA, USA
To further test the chemical determinants of rat olfactory
epithelium response, EOG peaks in an exposed epithelium
preparation (Scott et al., 2000) and in a preparation with intact air
flow (Scott et al., 1996) were fit to the same equation using
chemical parameters computed with Molecular Modeling Pro.
The response distribution was characterized by the z-score of
slope defined as the response size vs. epithelial position. That
equation employed two parameters related to molecular solubility
and charge distribution. Parameters were fit to the 21 odorants
used in both studies with a correlation of 0.88 for the 42 total
points. The same parameters and coefficients described the total
set of 92 points (r=0.77). A new set of data has been collected with
a series of intranasal flow rates for 41 odorants. This equation fit
responses at high (500 ml/min r=0.75), medium (200 ml/min
r=0.67), and low (100 ml/min r=0.65) flow rates. The success of
one equation for three data sets argues for a consistent
relationship between odor chemistry and spatial response pattern.
The difference in response between high and medium flow rates
was governed by different properties at different sites. For
dorsomedial sites this difference correlated at p