14 DAY TRIAL // Several researchers speaking at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society caused quite a stir when saying that, contrary to popular belief, the human nose is not the only part of an individual's body capable of picking up various odors.
Long story short, these researchers maintain that, following their carrying out a series of experiments and investigations, they reached the conclusion that cells that make up one's blood, heart and lungs might also have the ability to sense odors.
EurekAlert! reports that Peter Schieberle, PhD and a food chemistry and technology specialist, drew attention to the fact that the nose can only register the odors it is being presented with because of several olfactory receptors that are embedded in the olfactory epithelium.
Once the molecules responsible for creating a certain odor come in contact with these receptors, a series of biological events shortly follows and the brain eventually picks up on the smell.
“Our team recently discovered that blood cells — not only cells in the nose — have odorant receptors,” Peter Schierberle told members of the press.
His statement is based on the fact that, after several primary blood cells were placed inside a partitioned multi-wall chamber together with a pleasant and attractant odorant chemical compound, the cells allegedly migrated towards the source of the odor.
“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. But surprisingly, there is growing evidence that also the heart, the lungs and many other non-olfactory organs have these receptors. And once a food is eaten, its components move from the stomach into the bloodstream,” Peter Schieberle said.
“But does this mean that, for instance, the heart 'smells' the steak you just ate? We don't know the answer to that question,” the researcher went on to argue.
For the time being, Peter Schieberle and his colleagues wish to keep looking into the matter at hand.
Their goal is to figure out whether or not odor components behave in the same manner when in the nose and when inside the body.