NCT04633109

The Obese Taste Bud Study

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 210 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Leipzig · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 69 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The sense of taste is essential for priming food preferences and is therefore important for caloric uptake and body weight regulation. Recent studies show that obesity is linked to changes in taste sensation but also to a loss of taste buds on the tongue. This study aims to evaluate underlying mechanisms within the taste buds to potentially influence the sense of taste on the level of these sensory cells and in order to develop new treatment strategies to fight obesity.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	taste bud biopsy	Taste buds will be surgically removed a) during a planned and medically induced elective surgery under full anesthesia; b) by local anesthesia in subjects without a medically induced surgery
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	oral glucose tolerance test	75g glucose will be applied in drinking water following blood sample collection to evaluate glucose, insulin and C-peptide level.
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Taste sensitivity	Subjects are given taste strips with 4 concentrations per each taste quality of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami in a pseudo-randomized manner. Subjects are asked to identify the taste quality, state the intensity, preference and certainty.
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	olfactory function	Subjects will be presented 16 different sniffing sticks in a randomized order, each for about 4seconds. People are then asked to identify the smell by choosing one out of 4 options (forced choice).
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	taste bud density	The number of taste buds on the anterior tongue will be determined by colouring the tongue surface with food colour. Taste buds will apply more reddish as compared to non-taste tissue. Based on a digital photography the number of taste buds per subjects is counted manually.
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	anthropometry	Anthropometric data collection will include measures of body height, body weight, arm-, upper- and lower leg circumferences, waist- and hip circumferences and a bioimpedance analysis to obtain data about body composition.
OTHER	biospecimen collection	Blood and saliva samples will be taken as well as a tongue swab.
OTHER	questionnaires	Through the use of several questionnaires, data about eating behavior, food preferences, life style factors and other will be obtained.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-11-09
• Primary completion: 2022-07-15
• Completion: 2022-07-30
• First posted: 2020-11-18
• Last updated: 2021-01-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany