Fig. 5: Increased T1R2/T1R3 expression in response to sweeteners given at low or high doses for 4 weeks to mice (n = 10).

Sweet taste receptors T1R2 and T1R3 (approximate 90 kDa in all the graphs) expression levels from isolated bladder tissue of different groups were detected by western blots. Protein (50 μg) was loaded for each sample and separated by SDS-PAGE, using β-actin as an internal loading control. A, B were T1R2 and T1R3 protein expression levels for SUC (sucralose) group (low and high dose), respectively. C, D were T1R2 and T1R3 protein expression levels for AceK (acesulfame potassium) group (low and high dose), respectively. E, F were T1R2 and T1R3 protein expression levels for saccharin (saccharin) group (low and high dose), respectively. G mRNA levels of tas1r3 were determined by qPCR and was standardized to GAPDH mRNA. Results for each show relative tas1r3 mRNA expression compared with the water (control) group. SUC sucralose, AK acesulfame potassium, SAC saccharin. The water group was used as the negative control. Graph B, D, F shared the same legend with A, C, E, respectively. The uncropped bolt images are shown in Supplementary Figs. S2–S10. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s multiple comparison post-hoc test were performed for all results. All the error bars show the standard deviations of the means. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.