PHEROMONES Scientific Facts

Harvard Medical School

All it takes is a few molecules of a certain chemical to enable mammals to smell their own species up to a half-mile away, says Milos Novotny, Distinguished Professor of chemistry and director of the Institute for Pheromone Research.

The chemicals, called pheromones, are detected by the vomeronasal
organ (VNO) in the animal's nose. Unlike the part of the nose that detects
ordinary smells, this super-sensitive organ is connected directly to the mid-brain.
Professor Novotny's current emphasis is on the neurochemistry of neurons
in the VNO and OE. He is the leader of interdisciplinary studies that
bridge the physical sciences, life sciences and social sciences, including
chemistry, neurobiology, psychobiology, biochemistry, wildlife ecology,
medical sciences, and animal physiology and behavior.

Ever notice how male dogs come from the other side of the
neighborhood when a female dog is in heat?

In a paper published July 12 in the journal Nature, Novotny and
co-workers at Harvard Medical School in Boston headed by Linda
Buck reported that the vomeronasal organ can actually detect both
odorants and pheromones. The VNO detected odorants classified as
animalic, camphoraceous, citrus, floral, fruity, green/minty, musky, sweet
or woody. Like pheromones, these odorants were detected at extremely
small concentrations.

"This suggests that in mammals, as in insects, odorous compounds
released from plants or other animal species may act as
'semiochemicals' -- signaling molecules that elicit behaviors that are
advantageous to the sender or the receiver," Novotny said.

Professor Novotny can be reached at 812-855-4532 or
novotny@indiana.edu

Eau de Pheromone

Compared with many other creatures, human women and men simply
don't rely too heavily on their noses for sniffing out a partner. But new
studies suggest that our sense of smell may be more important than was
previously assumed. In fact, says Alan Hirsch, neurological director at the
Smell & Taste Treatment Research Foundation in Chicago, people
can lose sexual function if they lose their sense of smell.

Some researchers think olfactory research in animals may help explain
human behaviors. Let's start with mice. Claus Wedekind, a zoologist at
Bern University in Switzerland, says female mice sniff for mating partners
with DNA that's different from their own, to help their offspring resist a
wider range of diseases. Specifically, Wedekind says, female mice look
for a mate with a different MHC (major histocompatibility complex), a
protein complex that lets the immune system know when disease is
present, spurring killer T cells into action. Similarly, researchers say,
human females are more likely to be attracted by a man's body odor if he
has different MHC.

Even if a woman turns up her nose at first, researchers have learned, a
relationship may flower later, when her body is more receptive. In studies
at the Ludwig-Bolzman-Institut in Vienna, 290 young women who were
ordinarily turned off by androsterone (a key component in men's sweat)
were less so by it while they were ovulating. Androsterone, it seems, may
act as a pheromone that attracts women, increasing the likelihood of
fertilization.

Trends in Neurosciences
Volume 26, Issue 12, December 2003, Pages 646-650

Pheromones In Male Perspiration Reduce Women's
Tension, Alter Hormone Response

PHILADELPHIA -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and the
Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia have found that
exposure to male perspiration has marked psychological and
physiological effects on women: It can brighten women's moods,
reducing tension and increasing relaxation, and also has a direct effect
on the release of luteinizing hormone, which affects the length and timing
of the menstrual cycle.

The results will be published in June in the journal Biology of
Reproduction and currently appear on the journal's Web site.

"It has long been recognized that female pheromones can affect the
menstrual cycles of other women," said George Preti, a member of the
Monell Center and adjunct professor of dermatology in Penn's School of
Medicine. "These findings are the first to document mood and
neuroendocrine effects of male pheromones on females."

In a study led by Preti and colleague Charles J. Wysocki, extracts from
the underarms of male volunteers were applied to the upper lip of 18
women ages 25 to 45. During the six hours of exposure to the compound,
the women were asked to rate their mood using a fixed scale.

"Much to our surprise, the women reported feeling less tense and more
relaxed during exposure to the male extract," said Wysocki, a member of
the Monell Center and adjunct professor of animal biology in Penn's
School of Veterinary Medicine. "This suggests that there may be much
more going on in social settings like singles bars than meets the eye."

After the women's exposure to the underarm extract, further testing
revealed a shift in blood levels of luteinizing hormone. Levels of this
reproductive hormone, produced in pulses by the pituitary gland, typically
surge right before ovulation but also experience hundreds of smaller
peaks throughout the menstrual cycle.

Preti and Wysocki found that application of male underarm secretions
hastened onset of these smaller pulses. Duration to the next pulse of
luteinizing hormone was shortened by an average 20 percent, from 59 to
47 minutes.

Preti and Wysocki are now looking at the several dozen individual
compounds that make up male perspiration to determine which may be
responsible for the effects they observed. They also plan to study whether
female pheromones can affect men's moods or physiological functions.

"This may open the door to pharmacological approaches to manage
onset of ovulation or the effects of premenstrual syndrome or even natural
products to aid relaxation," Wysocki said. "By determining how
pheromones impact mood and endocrine response, we might be able to
build a better male odor: molecules that more effectively manipulate the
effects we observed."

The underarm extracts used in the study came from men who bathed with
fragrance-free soap and refrained from deodorant use for four weeks.
The extracts were blended to avoid reactions to individual men's odors.
None of the women involved in the study discerned that male sweat had
been applied right under their noses; some believed they were involved
in a study of alcohol, perfume or even lemon floor wax.

Half the women received three applications of the male secretions during
a six-hour period, followed three controlled exposures to ethanol, used as
a control substance, over a six-hour period. For the other half, the
regimen was reversed. The women did not report feeling any more or
less energetic, sensuous, tired, calm, sexy, anxious, fatigued or active
after exposure to male perspiration.

Preti and Wysocki are joined in the Biology of Reproduction paper by
co-authors Kurt T. Barnhart and Steven J. Sondheimer of Penn's
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and James J. Leyden of
Penn's Department of Dermatology. Their work is sponsored by the
National Institutes of Health.

Psychoneuroendocrinology.
2004 Nov;29(10):1290-9.
Related Articles, Links

Sniffing a human sex-steroid derived compound affects mood and
autonomic arousal in a dose-dependent manner.

Bensafi M, Tsutsui T, Khan R, Levenson RW, Sobel N.

Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, 3210 Tolman Hall MC 1650,
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
bensafi@uclink.berkeley.edu

The effects of sniffing different concentrations of the human sex-steroid
derived compound 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) on autonomic
nervous system function and mood were measured in 60 subjects. The
effects were sex-specific and concentration-dependent. Only high
concentrations of AND (0.00625 M) increased positive mood (p < 0.03) and decreased negative mood (p < 0.05) in women compared to men, and had sympathetic-like effects in women (p < 0.003), and parasympathetic-like effects in men (p < 0.05). These findings further implicate AND in chemical communication between humans, but pose questions as to the path by which AND is transduced, whether through chemical sensing or transdermal diffusion. Publication Types: Clinical Trial Randomized Controlled Trial PMID: 15288708 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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