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NEW ORLEANS — Apparently, your nose isn't the only part of you that can smell. Researchers say your heart, lungs, and blood also have olfactory receptors that sniff.
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich found olfactory receptors on human internal organs, including the heart and lungs, as well as blood cells. Their research came about in an attempt to better understand the fickle appetite of the homosapien.
"Our team recently discovered that blood cells — not only cells in the nose — have odorant receptors," said researcher Peter Schieberle, Ph.D. "In the nose, these so-called receptors sense substances called odorants and translate them into an aroma that we interpret as pleasing or not pleasing in the brain."
They presented their findings at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans last week.
- Airborne molecules of a volatile substance give off oderants
- Air current sweep oderants up through nostrils and into the olfactory epithelium
- Oderants stimulate olfactory receptor cells
- Olfactory receptor cells send electrical impulse to the olfactory bulb
- An impulse is then sent to the glomerulus, which passes information onto the brain
- The brain interprets the 'oderant patterns' into what we know as scent
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Researchers isolated human blood cells to see how they interacted with odorant (scent) molecules. They found that blood cells moved toward the pleasant odors introduced to them. They did not know whether or not those olfactory receptors used scent in the same way a nose does, however.
"Once a food is eaten, its components move from the stomach into the bloodstream. But does this mean that, for instance, the heart 'smells' the steak you just ate? We don't know the answer to that question," Schieberle said.
He suggested that the nose, organs and blood cells work together to process scent and flavor — and in turn, our brain tells us what scents to stay away from.
That information is valuable to the food industry, Schieberle noted, as it has attempted to identify food components and what attracts people to a meal.
