Sexual pheromones olfactory/vomeronasal

Herrada G, Dulac C (1997) A novel family of putative pheromone receptors in mammals with a topographically organized and sexually dimorphic distribution. Cell 90 763-773 Huh GS, Boulanger LM, Du H, Riquelme PA, Brotz TM, Shatz CJ (2000) Functional requirement for class I MHC in CNS development and plasticity. Science 290 2155-2159 Inamura K, Kashiwayanagi M, Kurihara K (1999) Regionalization of Fos immunostaining in rat accessory olfactory bulb when the vomeronasal organ was exposed to urine. Eur J Neurosci 11 2254-2260... 

Sodefrin was demonstrated electrophysiologically to act on the nasal epithelium. Judging from the EOG response to this pheromone, the main site of action seems to be the vomeronasal epithelium rather than the main olfactory epithelium. The responsiveness to sodefrin is sex-dependent and hormone-dependent. The vomeronasal epithelium of sexually developed females exhibits a greater response than that of males and sexually undeveloped females. In females, a combination of PRL and estrogen elevates the responsiveness of the epithelium to sodefrin. Analyses of sodefrin receptor and its gene will be needed for the clarification of the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. 

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