Effects of sensory stimuli on the incidence of fetal resorption in a murine model of spontaneous abortion: the presence of an alien male and postimplantation embryo survival.

Pregnancy outcome may be altered by both genetic and environmental factors. The mating of CBA/J female mice with DBA/2 males normally results in pregnancies characterized by a relatively high incidence of early embryo compared with most other syngeneic or allogeneic matings. This study addressed the role of normal laboratory stress in the induction of early embryo loss. The previously studied 'Bruce effect' describes the total loss of preimplantation embryos (pregnancy block) that is apparently caused by the stress induced by the presence of an alien male and mediated by neuroimmunological effects on prolactin activity. To determine whether this effect could be responsible for the high incidence of postimplantation embryo losses in the CBA/J x DBA/2 model, the original DBA/2 male was replaced on day 6 of gestation by another DBA/2 male, a CBA/J, a C57Bl/6 or a BALB/c male. The relatively high incidence of embryo loss was not affected by removing the original DBA/2 male or introducing another DBA/2 or a CBA/J male, indicating that stress induced by an alien male did not increase the postimplantation losses in this model. Furthermore, the introduction of a DBA/2 male to a CBA/J female that had been mated with a BALB/c male did not elicit early embryo loss. However, the replacement of the original DBA/2 male by a BALB/c male dramatically reduced the incidence of early embryo loss in pregnant CBA/J female mice. The introduction of a C57Bl/6 male also reduced embryo loss but to a lesser extent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)