Effects of very small doses of urine on acceleration and delay of sexual maturation in female house mice.
Four types of chemosignal donors were used: adult intact males, grouped adult intact females, pregnant females and lactating females. A daily dose of 0.001 ml urine was sufficient to produce the same degree of acceleration or delay known to occur with whole urine from each donor type. With 0.00001 ml the age of puberty did not differ from that of water-treated controls for any of the treatments. With the intermediate, 0.0001 ml/day dose, the results were variable, depending upon the donor type. The results indicate that for young mice daily exposure to extremely small quantities of urine can influence the physiological events accelerating or delaying puberty.
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D007774:Lactation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010675:Pheromones / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000187:drug effects*; D014556:Urine
D010675:Pheromones