| Title: | Restricted exposure of mice to primer pheromones coincident with prolactin surges blocks pregnancy by changing hypothalamic dopamine release |
| Author(s): | Rosser AE; Remfry CJ; Keverne EB; |
| Address: | "Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, UK" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0022-4251 (Print) 0022-4251 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Exposure of recently mated female mice to strange male urine revealed that exposure for 8 h was sufficient to produce pregnancy block providing exposure is for two 4-h periods coincident with prolactin surges. Exposure for 8 h between prolactin surges or one 4-h exposure coincident with either the nocturnal or the diurnal prolactin surge was without effect. When bromocriptine, a dopamine agonist, was given coincident with the nocturnal and diurnal prolactin surges, it was equally effective, but the opiate antagonist (naltrexone) administered in a similar manner was without effect. This result indicates that pheromonal action is through excitation of the tuberoinfundibular neurones rather than by inhibition of beta-endorphin neurones. Further evidence for dopamine involvement in pregnancy block is demonstrated by showing DOPA accumulation in the medio-basal hypothalamus following exposure to male urinary pheromones after dihydroxybenzylhydrazine (DHBH) administration, which blocks the enzyme DOPA-decarboxylase. Taken together, this series of experiments provides convincing evidence for the dopamine inhibition of prolactin release being the final pathway for pheromone action in the context of pregnancy block" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Bromocriptine/pharmacology Dihydroxyphenylalanine/metabolism Dopamine/*metabolism Female Hypothalamus/drug effects/*metabolism Mice Mice, Inbred BALB C Mice, Inbred Strains Naltrexone/pharmacology Pheromones/*pharmacology Pregnancy Pregnancy, Anim;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineRosser, A E Remfry, C J Keverne, E B eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 1989/11/01 J Reprod Fertil. 1989 Nov; 87(2):553-9. doi: 10.1530/jrf.0.0870553" |
