Role of nitric oxide in pheromone-mediated intraspecific communication in mice

Abstract

Nitric oxide is known to take part in the control of sexual and agonistic behaviours. This is usually attributed to its role in neural transmission in the hypothalamus and other structures of the limbic system. However, socio-sexual behaviours in rodents are mainly directed by chemical signals detected by the vomeronasal system, and nitric oxide is abundant in key structures along the vomeronasal pathway. Thus, here we check whether pharmacological treatments interfering with nitrergic transmission could affect socio-sexual behaviour by impairing the processing of chemical signals. Treatment with an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthesis (Nω-Nitro-l-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride, L-NAME, 100 mg/kg) blocks the innate preference displayed by female mice for sexual pheromones contained in male-soiled bedding, with a lower dose of the drug (50 mg/kg) having no effect. Animals treated with the high dose of L-NAME show no reduction of olfactory discrimination of male urine in a habituation–dishabituation test, thus suggesting that the effect of the drug on the preference for male pheromones is not due to an inability to detect male urine. Alternatively, it may result from an alteration in processing the reinforcing value of pheromones as sexual signals. These results add a new piece of evidence to our understanding of the neurochemistry of intraspecific chemical communication in rodents, and suggest that the role of nitric oxide in socio-sexual behaviours should be re-evaluated taking into account the involvement of this neuromodulator in the processing of chemical signals.