Skip Navigation


Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on March 1, 2006
Chemical Senses 2006 31(5):393-401; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjj043
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
31/5/393    most recent
bjj043v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (4)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Morè, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Morè, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Mouse Major Urinary Proteins Trigger Ovulation via the Vomeronasal Organ

Lorenzo Morè1,2

1 Department of Behavioural Pharmacology, Preclinical R & D, Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Eckenheimer Landstrasse 100, 60318 Frankfurt am Main, Germany and 2 Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 3, 35131 Padova, Italy

Correspondence to be sent to: Lorenzo Morè, Department of Behavioural Pharmacology, Preclinical R & D, Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Eckenheimer Landstrasse 100, 60318 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. e-mail: lorenzo.mo{at}unipd.it

The major urinary proteins are a species-specific complex of proteins excreted by male mice that influence the reproductive behavior and the neuroendocrine condition of female mice through the olfactory system. The aim of this work is to determine their influence on ovulation. The major urinary proteins isolated from the urine of adult male mice were voided of bound odorants, dissolved at a physiological concentration in urine of prepubertal mice, and put on the nostril of reproductively cycling female mice housed in groups, the first day of estrus at 1100. The eggs shed in the oviducts were counted under dissection the morning of the second day of estrus. The results showed that 1) a single stimulus of the major urinary proteins increased ovulation nearly as much as the whole urine of male mice, 2) the effect was not elicited by male rat urine which contains different proteins, 3) a peptide with four residues of the amino-terminal sequence of the major urinary proteins stimulated ovulation, and 4) mice that had been isolated or had the vomeronasal organ (VNO) removed did not respond to the major urinary proteins and had a high spontaneous ovulation. The results suggest that the major urinary proteins activate the neuroendocrine system through the VNO and trigger ovulation.

Key words: eggs shed, estrus, isolation, oviduct, pheromones, urine


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.