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Reduced taste function and taste papillae density in children with chronic kidney disease

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Abstract

Background

Taste loss may contribute to the loss of appetite in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and other serious medical conditions that result in malnutrition. Traditional methods for measurement of taste loss commonly use aqueous tastant solutions that can induce nausea, vomiting, or even pain in the mouth. An alternative is to measure fungiform papillae density on the anterior tongue since this correlates with taste sensitivity. Here we aimed to develop a non-invasive method for assessing papillae density on the anterior tongue and to use the method to determine if CKD patients [estimated glomerular filtrate (eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2)] have a lower density than clinical controls (CC)(eGFR > 89 ml/min/1.73 m2).

Methods

Thirty-five healthy adults participated in the development of a method, which was assessed by 24 children, 12 of whom were CKD patients and 12 were clinical controls.

Results

Similar papillae densities were found using invasive and non-invasive methods (F(1,34) = 0.647, p = 0.427). The CKD group had a significantly lower papillae density (X2 = 7.17, p = 0.007) and poorer taste sensitivity than the CC group (p = 0.0272), and the density correlated significantly with eGFR (r = 0.56, p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Loss of taste in children with CKD is due to the reduced number of papillae and their taste-sensing receptor cells.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the adults and children who participated in the study for their assistance and cooperation and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation for a grant supporting the research (DGL and GK). MC was supported by a Postgraduate Scholarship from the Centre for Advanced Food Research and JEA by an Australian Postgraduate Award.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Children’s Food Research and Education Unit, Centre for Advanced Food Research, College of Science, Technology and Environment, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, NSW, 1797, Australia

    Maryam Correa, David G. Laing & Ian Hutchinson

  2. School of Women’s and Children’s Health, Medicine, University of NSW, Level 3 Sydney Children’s Hospital, High Street, Randwick, NSW, 2031, Australia

    David G. Laing, Jessica E. Armstrong & Gad Kainer

  3. School of Psychology and Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, 1797, NSW, Australia

    Anthony L. Jinks

  4. Department of Nephrology, Sydney Children’s Hospital, High Street, Randwick, NSW, 2031, Australia

    Gad Kainer

Authors
  1. Maryam Correa
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  2. David G. Laing
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  3. Ian Hutchinson
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  4. Anthony L. Jinks
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  5. Jessica E. Armstrong
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  6. Gad Kainer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David G. Laing.

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Correa, M., Laing, D.G., Hutchinson, I. et al. Reduced taste function and taste papillae density in children with chronic kidney disease. Pediatr Nephrol 30, 2003–2010 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-015-3131-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-015-3131-5

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