Loss of taste buds in the circumvallate papillae of rat tongue after ovariectomy

The menopausal loss of estrogen levels can be linked to oral discomfort including dysgeusia. Dysgeusia could be caused by degeneration of taste buds in the papillae of the tongue. This study aimed to investigate the effect of menopause on the number of taste buds in the circumvallate papillae of the tongue. Menopausal conditioning was induced by ovariectomy of Wistar rats with similar weight, age and partus just once. The number of taste buds per papilla was counted before and after ovariectomy. The proliferation activity of taste bud cells was determined by evaluating the fraction of taste bud cells with nucleolar organizer region activity (AgNOR staining) with respect to the total number of taste bud cells. Multi-way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. The results show that ovariectomy resulted in a significant decrease in the number of taste buds in the circumvallate papillae (p < 0.001) and also in the proliferation activity of taste bud cells (p < 0.01). The decreasing trend in the number of taste buds conti nued at least up to 100 days after ovariectomy. In contrast, the proliferation activity dropped to a lower level within 10 days after ovariectomy and remained practically constant thereafter. The number and proliferative activity of the papillae circumvallate taste buds of rats are changed following the induction of menopause through ovariectomy.