The Hematopoietic System Influences Odor Specificity in Mice and Rats

Abstract

The change in strain-specific urine odors which appears after bone marrow transplantations was examined in mice and rats in order to demonstrate an influence of the hematopoietic system on urinary chemosignals. Four rats were trained in an olfactometer to discriminate two allogeneic mouse or rat strains via their urine odors. Urine samples obtained from two inbred strains of mice, from two inbred strains of rats, from allogeneic reconstituted mice, and from semiallogeneic reconstituted rats were combined in a number of ‘transfer of training’ tests. Results confirm findings that the hematopoietic system influences odor specificity in mice. For the first time a change of urinary chemosignals after bone marrow transplantation in rats was demonstrated by using semiallogeneic reconstituted rat chimeras.

MHC-Associated and MHC-lndependent Urinary Chemosignals in Mice Are Expressed via the Hematopoietic System

“…Since syngeneic transplanted animals showed no change in their urine odor after transplantation, it was concluded that the demonstrated changes in the urine odors of allogeneic reconstituted chimeras were caused by the transplant. The results were confirmed in another experimental paradigm and similar results were found in semiallogeneic reconstituted rats [ 13]. Since in these stud ies [12,13] the animals used as donors and recipients dif fer genetically not only in the H-2, but also in their genetic backgrounds, influences of genetic loci other than the H-2 upon the odors under examination could not been ruled out.…”

“…The expression of genetically determined urinary che mosignals via the hematopoietic system has been docu mented in a number of studies that reveal a change in uri nary odors after experimental bone marrow transplanta tions between genetically different inbred strains of mice [10,12,13], Up to now the only group of genes which has been identified to be expressed via the hematopoietic system is the MHC. The present study confirms that MHC-associated odors are expressed via the hematopoietic system.…”

“…The design of the computer-controlled olfactometer, adopted from Beauchamp et al [ 14], that was used for training and testing procedures, is described in detail elsewhere [13]. Each training ses sion consisted of up to 200 single trials, for which the odor samples were presented in a pseudorandom order.…”