| Title: | Alarm pheromone is detected by the vomeronasal organ in male rats |
| Author(s): | Kiyokawa Y; Kodama Y; Kubota T; Takeuchi Y; Mori Y; |
| Address: | "Laboratory of Veterinary Ethology, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan. akiyo@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1464-3553 (Electronic) 0379-864X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "It is widely known that a stressed animal releases specific pheromones, possibly for alarming nearby conspecifics. We previously investigated an alarm pheromone in male rats and found that this alarm pheromone evokes several responses, including increases in the defensive and risk assessment behaviors in a modified open-field test, and enhancement of the acoustic startle reflex. However, the role of the vomeronasal organ in these pheromone effects remains unclear. To clarify this point, vomeronasal organ-excising or sham surgeries were performed in male rats for use in 2 experimental models, after which they were exposed to alarm pheromone. We found that the vomeronasal organ-excising surgery blocked the effects of this alarm pheromone in both the modified open-field test and acoustic startle reflex test. In addition, the results of habituation/dishabituation test and soybean agglutinin binding to the accessory olfactory bulb suggested that the vomeronasal organ-excising surgery completely ablated the vomeronasal organ while preserving the functioning of the main olfactory system. From the above results, we showed that the vomeronasal organ plays an important role in alarm pheromone effects in the modified open-field test and acoustic startle reflex test" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Behavior, Animal Male Olfactory Bulb/physiology Pheromones/*metabolism Plant Lectins/metabolism Rats/*physiology Rats, Wistar Soybean Proteins/metabolism Stress, Physiological Vomeronasal Organ/*physiology/surgery acoustic startle reflex habituati;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineKiyokawa, Yasushi Kodama, Yuka Kubota, Takahiro Takeuchi, Yukari Mori, Yuji eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2013/07/04 Chem Senses. 2013 Oct; 38(8):661-8. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjt030. Epub 2013 Jul 2" |
