Research
Hormonal
Neuropod cells communicate nutrient information to the vagus nerve primarily via glutamate release, allowing for rapid distinction between sugar and artificial sweeteners.
Your gut has a specific 'sugar detector' (neuropod cells) that sends a fast signal to your brain using glutamate. This signal is triggered by real sugar (sucrose) but not by artificial sweeteners. This might explain why artificial sweeteners don't always satisfy sugar cravings or trigger the same metabolic responses as real sugar.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
CCK+ neuropod cells communicate with vagal nodose ganglion neurons through glutamate... colorimetric assays of glucose in supernatants from organoids showed that glutamate was released from organoids after sucrose wash-in, but not after artificial sweeteners.
Why this rating
Based on multiple studies including organoid models and optogenetics.
Source
Enteroendocrine cell regulation of the gut-brain axis
Joshua R. Barton et al. · Frontiers in Neuroscience · 2023
DOI 10.3389/fnins.2023.1272955
narrative_reviewCited 65×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Enteroendocrine cells (EECs) regulate the gut-brain axis through two distinct mechanisms: slow endocrine hormone release into the bloodstream and rapid synaptic signaling via neuropod cells.Good
- Serotonin (5-HT) released from enterochromaffin (EC) cells modulates visceral sensitivity and pain signaling via direct synaptic interaction with nociceptive neurons.Good
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