Female Scent Signals Enhance the Resistance of Male Mice to Influenza

Background: The scent from receptive female mice functions as a signal, which stimulates male mice to search for potential mating partners. This searching behavior is coupled with infection risk due to sniffing both scent marks as well as nasal and anogenital areas of females, which harbor bacteria and viruses. Consideration of host evolution under unavoidable parasitic pressures, including helminthes, bacteria, viruses, etc., predicts adaptations that help protect hosts against the parasites associated with mating. Methods and Findings: We propose that the perception of female signals by BALB/c male mice leads to adaptive redistribution of the immune defense directed to protection against respiratory infection risks. Our results demonstrate migration of macrophages and neutrophils to the upper airways upon exposure to female odor stimuli, which results in an increased resistance of the males to experimental influenza virus infection. This moderate leukocyte intervention had no negative effect on the aerobic performance in male mice. Conclusions: Our data provide the first demonstration of the adaptive immunological response to female odor stimul

A contemporary view of Blount's disease (literature review)

Introduction Blount's disease is a severe pediatric pathology of the musculoskeletal system. The condition is characterized by impaired growth and development of the proximal medial tibia and epiphysis, leading to varus deformity of the knee joint. Blount's disease is not just a cosmetic defect, but a serious orthopaedic condition accompanied by a gait disorder in a child. Patients with Blount's disease need surgical correction followed by longterm rehabilitation and can develop recurrence. The etiology of Blount's disease is unknown. Varus deformity of the knee joint is diagnosed in children all over the world, but studies on this pathology are few. There is a paucity of publications in the modern Russian literature reporting the pathology. The objective was review the literature on the classification, diagnosis, etiology and treatment of Blount's disease. Material and methods Electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, eLibrary were used to source literature on the topic. Results Blount's disease has been shown to be characterized by disordered growth of the medial aspect of the proximal tibial physis and epiphysis that results in a three-dimensional deformity of the lower limb. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of the cohort of patients. The etiology of Blount disease is unknown, and it is currently thought to result from a multifactorial combination of hereditary, humoral, biomechanical, and developmental factors. Conclusion Genetic predisposition has been postulated in the development of Blount's disease in many studies. Multiple factors such as ethnicity, obesity and early walking age are thought to be the contributing elements to this disease. To understand the key factor of the disease, further study of the hereditary nature of this pathology is necessary

The number of leukocyte aggregates per histological section: the average number of leukocytes per aggregate and total number of leukocytes per section in male BALB/c mice not exposed and exposed to female bedding (mean ± SE).

<p>The number of leukocyte aggregates per histological section: the average number of leukocytes per aggregate and total number of leukocytes per section in male BALB/c mice not exposed and exposed to female bedding (mean ± SE).</p

Leukocyte aggregates in the lung tissue.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Male BALB/c mice not exposed to female bedding. (<b>B</b>) Male BALB/c mice exposed to female bedding. Light microscopy (magnifications ×100 and ×200).</p

Aerobic performance.

<p>Oxygen consumption during 15-min exposure to HELOX (mean ± SE) by the male mice not exposed (white dots) and exposed (black dots) to female bedding (repeated measures ANOVA <i>F</i>_1,14 = 5.46, <i>p</i> = 0.035). MOC was similar in the males exposed (<i>n</i> = 8, 9.73±0.39) and not exposed (<i>n</i> = 8, 9.00±0.29) to female bedding.</p

Cumulative mortality after infection with influenza.

<p>BALB/c male mice not exposed (white dots) and exposed (black dots) to female bedding (mean ± SE). LD₅₀ in the males exposed to female bedding (4.73±0.30 log FFU) was significantly higher as compared with the males isolated from female bedding (3.28±0.35 log FFU, <i>t</i> = 2.84, <i>p</i><0.01).</p

Maximal decrease in the weight of male mice during 3 weeks after infection with influenza.

<p>BALB/c male mice unexposed (white columns) and exposed (black columns) to the female bedding (mean ± SE). Capital letters mark statistically significant differences of means in the males not exposed to female bedding and small letters mark statistically significant differences of the means in males exposed to female bedding (LSD test, <i>p</i><0.05). * <i>p</i><0.05, *** <i>p</i><0.001, compared with the scent exposed mice (Student's <i>t</i>-test).</p