Urinary marking

Desjardins, C., Maruniak, J. A., and Bronson, F. H. (1973). Social rank in house mice differentiation revealed by ultraviolet visualization of urinary marking patterns. Science 182 939-941. 

Christiansen, E. 1980. Urinary marking in wild bank voles, Clethrionomys glareolus in relation to season and sexual status. Behav. Near. Biol, 28, 123-127. 

Sandnabba, N.K. 1986. Changes in male odours and urinary marking patterns due to inhibition of aggression in male mice. Behav. Process., 12, 349-361. 

Volatile constituents associated with female urine and/or vaginal discharge often increase male and female sexual activity (271-279). Urinary marking of the environment is also an important feature of rodent and primate behavior (270, 280, 281). The compounds found in the urine of males and females generally vary with the breeding season or with the physiological status of the females this has been observed in the ram (274), red fox (282), the goat (283, 284), and the wolf (285). 

In some patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN), intraglomerular coagulation plays a role in depositing fibrinogen (235,236). IgAN patients treated with urokinase show a marked improvement in urinary protein concentration, semm creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen levels (237). 

Delays of more than two hours after the collection is completed may lead to markedly erroneous results. Urines with bacterial overgrowth, hemolyzed blood, or those obtained following any type of instrumental examination of the urinary tract may also lead to erroneous results, and should not be used for assays of enzyme activities. The stability of some clinically important enzymes in the various body fluids is given in Table IV. 

The study of the mechanism of urinary excretion of amylase and the amylase clearance has been the subject of many studies in recent years. Levitt et. al (79) studied the renal clearance of amylase in renal insufficiency, acute pancreatitis and macro-amylasemia. In acute pancreatitis, the kidney cleared amylase at a markedly increased rate. The ratio of the amylase clearance rate to the creatinine clearance rate (Cgm/Ccr) averaged 3 times normal early in the course of acute pancreatitis, and this elevation could persist after the serum amylase returned to normal. Comparison of an lase clearance to creatinine clearance was to minimize irrelevant changes due to variation in renal function. The increased clearance of amylase makes the urinary amylase a more sensitive indicator of pancreatitis. 

The adult male prostate contains abundant acid phosphatase which it secretes into the semen. The production of this enzyme is governed by the circulating levels of androgenic hormones. Castration or estrogen administration markedly reduces the prostatic urinary acid phosphatase of males. Other organs such as the liver, kidney, spleen, red cells and platelets also contain significant amounts of acid phosphatase. 

Fig. 3.1 Urinary chemosignalling deposition and broadcast by enurination (auto-marking) on beard in male Goat (from Ladewig, 1980).

Probst B. (1990). Female urinary chemosignals stimulate scent marking behaviour in male Mongolian Gerbils. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 5 (MacDonald D., Muller-Schwarze D. and Natynczuk S.E., eds.). University Press, Oxford, pp. 213-216. 

The normal UAG ranges from 0 to 5 mEq/L (mmol/L) and represents the presence of unmeasured urinary anions. In metabolic acidosis, the excretion of NH4+ and concurrent CP should increase markedly if renal acidification is intact. This results in UAG values from -20 to -50 mEq/L (mmol/L). This occurs because the urinary CP concentration now markedly exceeds the urinary Na+ and K+ concentrations. Diagnoses consistent with an excessively negative UAG include proximal (type 2) renal tubular acidosis, diarrhea, or administration of acetazo-lamide or hydrochloric acid (HC1). Excessively positive values of the UAG suggest a distal (type 1) renal tubular acidosis. 

Nephrolithiasis A condition marked by the presence of renal calculi (stones) in the kidney or urinary system. 

Cauxin is markedly different from previously reported mammalian CESs in term of urinary excretion. Other mammalian CESs comprise multigene families, and CES isozymes are highly and ubiquitously expressed in tissues such as the brain, liver, kidney, lung, and small intestine (Satoh and Hosokawa 1998). Our work on cauxin was the first description of a carboxylesterase excreted in urine. 

Fig. 6.1 Different strains of mice detect different concentrations of urinary odours of conspecifics with BALB/c>129/Sl>C57BL/6. Presented are the mean durations ( SEM) that mice investigated water and three sequential 2-min presentations of the same concentration of urine from one of the other strains at (A) 10 2, (B) 10 3 and (C) 10-4 concentrations. Immediatelyafter the presentation of Urine A, mice were exposed to a novel urine B (the other foreign strain) at the same concentration.(Reprinted from Neuroscience, 118, Lee, Emsley, Brown, and Hagg, T. Marked differences in olfactory sensitivity and apparent speed of forebrain neuroblast migration in three inbred strains of mice. 263-270, Copyright (2006), with permission from Elsevier)...

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