Keverne E B
Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, UK.
Chem Senses. 1998 Aug;23(4):491-4. doi: 10.1093/chemse/23.4.491.
Pregnancy block in mice requires exposure of recently mated females to urinary pheromones of a strange male, and when working with inbred strains this invariably requires urine from an outbred line. The pheromones which induce oestrus and early puberty in mice have been identified as the brevicomins and dihydrothiazoles. Since the same vomeronasal, neural and neuroendocrine pathways are also activated in pregnancy block, these compounds are likely candidates for pregnancy blocking pheromones. However, these relatively simple chemicals lack the capacity to code for differing mouse strains. Since large quantities of the polymorphic major urinary proteins from the lipocalin family found in urine serve as transporters for the dihydrothiazoles and brevicomins, and differ across strains, then these proteins must participate in pheromone recognition in the context of pregnancy block.
小鼠的妊娠阻断需要使近期交配过的雌性接触陌生雄性的尿液信息素，在使用近交系小鼠时，这通常需要远交系小鼠的尿液。已确定在小鼠中诱导发情和早熟的信息素为短链二羧酸和二氢噻唑。由于在妊娠阻断过程中相同的犁鼻器、神经和神经内分泌途径也会被激活，因此这些化合物很可能是妊娠阻断信息素的候选物质。然而，这些相对简单的化学物质缺乏对不同小鼠品系进行编码的能力。由于尿液中发现的来自脂质运载蛋白家族的大量多态性主要尿蛋白可作为二氢噻唑和短链二羧酸的转运蛋白，且不同品系之间存在差异，因此这些蛋白质必定在妊娠阻断的背景下参与信息素识别。
