Salazar Ignacio, Sanchez-Quinteiro Pablo, Cifuentes Jose Manuel, Fernandez De Troconiz Patricia
Department of Anatomy and Animal Production, Unit of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain.
Anat Rec A Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol. 2006 Sep;288(9):1009-25. doi: 10.1002/ar.a.20366.
The vomeronasal system is currently a topical issue since the dual functional specificity, vomeronasal system-pheromones, has recently been questioned. Irrespective of the tools used to put such specificity in doubt, the diversity of the anatomy of the system itself in the animal kingdom is probably of more importance than has previously been considered. It has to be pointed out that a true vomeronasal system is integrated by the vomeronasal organ, the accessory olfactory bulb, and the so-called vomeronasal amygdala. Therefore, it seems reasonable to establish the corresponding differences between a well-developed vomeronasal system and other areas of the nasal cavity in which putative olfactory receptors, perhaps present in other kinds of mammals, may be able to detect pheromones and to process them. In consequence, a solid pattern for one such system in one particular species needs to be chosen. Here we report on an analysis of the general morphological characteristics of the accessory olfactory bulb in mice, a species commonly used in the study of the vomeronasal system, during growth and in adults. Our results indicate that the critical period for the formation of this structure comprises the stages between the first and the fifth day after birth, when the stratification of the bulb, the peculiarities of each type of cell, and the final building of glomeruli are completed. In addition, our data suggest that the conventional plexiform layers of the main olfactory bulb are not present in the accessory bulb.
犁鼻系统目前是一个热门话题，因为其双重功能特异性，即犁鼻系统与信息素之间的关系，最近受到了质疑。无论用于质疑这种特异性的工具是什么，该系统在动物界本身解剖结构的多样性可能比之前认为的更为重要。必须指出的是，真正的犁鼻系统由犁鼻器、副嗅球和所谓的犁鼻杏仁核组成。因此，在发育完善的犁鼻系统与鼻腔其他区域之间建立相应差异似乎是合理的，在鼻腔其他区域中，可能存在于其他种类哺乳动物中的假定嗅觉受体或许能够检测并处理信息素。因此，需要为某一特定物种的这样一个系统选择一个坚实的模式。在此，我们报告了对小鼠副嗅球一般形态特征的分析，小鼠是犁鼻系统研究中常用的物种，涵盖了其生长阶段和成年阶段。我们的结果表明，该结构形成的关键时期包括出生后第一天到第五天之间的阶段，在此期间，嗅球的分层、每种细胞类型的特性以及嗅小球的最终构建完成。此外，我们的数据表明，副嗅球中不存在主嗅球的传统丛状层。
