Lau YE, Cherry JA, Baum MJ, Mani SK. Induction of Fos in the accessory olfactory system by male odors persists in female mice with a null mutation of the aromatase (cyp19) gene.
Brain Res Bull 2003;
60:143-50. [PMID:
12725902 DOI:
10.1016/s0361-9230(03)00024-8]
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Abstract
The ability of odors from soiled male bedding to induce neuronal Fos-immunoreactivity (IR) in sensory neurons located in both the apical and basal zones of the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and in two segments of the VNO-projection pathway, the anterior nucleus of the medial amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), was significantly reduced in adult, ovariectomized, estrogen-treated female mice with a homozygous null mutation of the cyp19 gene (ArKO) which encodes the estrogen biosynthetic P450 enzyme, aromatase. However, a significant odor-induced activation of Fos-IR was seen in other segments of the VNO-projection pathway of ArKO females, including the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) granule cell layer, the posterior-dorsal medial amygdala (MePD), and the medial preoptic area (MPA). These results suggest that the VNO/accessory olfactory pathway to the hypothalamus was functional in ArKO females even though they had presumably been exposed to less estrogenic stimulation than wild-type (WT) control females throughout development and until the time that estrogen treatment was begun in adulthood. Thus, the hypothesis of Toran-Allerand [Prog. Brain Res. 61 (1984) 63] that female-typical features of neuroendocrine and behavioral function require perinatal exposure to estrogen was not supported, at least for the VNO/accessory olfactory system.
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