Identification of estra-1,3,5 (10) ,16-tetraen-3-ol (estratetraenol) from the urine of pregnant women (1)

Thysen, Benjamin; Elliott, William H.; Katzman, Philip A.

doi:10.1016/s0039-128x(68)80052-2

Cited by 37 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…AND is a progesterone derivative detected in human sweat in concentrations that are Ϸ10 times higher in men compared with women (16). EST is an estrogen-like steroid that is detected in the urine of pregnant women (17). Both compounds are reported to induce sex-specific effects on the autonomic nervous system, mood, and context-dependent sexual arousal even without conscious perception (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24), and both have been proposed as candidate compounds for human pheromones.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain response to putative pheromones in lesbian women

Berglund

Lindström

Savić

2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

197

137

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The progesterone derivative 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and the estrogen-like steroid estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST) are candidate compounds for human pheromones. In previous positron emission tomography studies, we found that smelling AND and EST activated regions primarily incorporating the sexually dimorphic nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus, that this activation was differentiated with respect to sex and compound, and that homosexual men processed AND congruently with heterosexual women rather than heterosexual men. These observations indicate involvement of the anterior hypothalamus in physiological processes related to sexual orientation in humans. We expand the information on this issue in the present study by performing identical positron emission tomography experiments on 12 lesbian women. In contrast to heterosexual women, lesbian women processed AND stimuli by the olfactory networks and not the anterior hypothalamus. Furthermore, when smelling EST, they partly shared activation of the anterior hypothalamus with heterosexual men. These data support our previous results about differentiated processing of pheromone-like stimuli in humans and further strengthen the notion of a coupling between hypothalamic neuronal circuits and sexual preferences.hypothalamus ͉ olfaction ͉ positron emission tomography ͉ sexual orientation I n animals, the choice of sexual partner is highly influenced by signals from sex-specific pheromones. These signals are processed by specific nuclei located in the anterior hypothalamus, identified as male and female mating centers (1-5). A lesion of the respective mating center as well as impairment of pheromone transduction may alter the coital approach in a sex-specific way (3-5). For example, electrolytic lesion of the preoptic area is reported to shift the mean preference of male ferrets away from the estrous females to the stud males (3, 5). Male rats are found to reduce their coital behavior after destruction of the preoptic area and show more interest in stimulus males than receptive females (1). Female ferrets, however, preferred females after destruction of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (2) and did not allow males to intromit (4), whereas female rats increased the proportion of female approaches after kindling of the preoptic area (6).In humans, reproductive functions are mediated by neuronal circuits of the anterior hypothalamus. There is reason to believe that these circuits also participate in the integration of the hormonal and sensory cues that are necessary for our sexual behavior and may also be involved in our sexual preferences (7). The preoptic area of the hypothalamus harbors cells releasing luteinic hormone-releasing hormone (8). These cells develop from the migrating neuroblasts of the olfactory mucosa (9) and mediate estrogen feedback. The estrogen feedback differs between males and females and also is reported to differ between homosexual men (HoM) and heterosexual men (HeM) (10). In addition, the anterior hypothalamus contains neuronal congl...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain response to putative pheromones in lesbian women

Berglund

Lindström

Savić

2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

197

137

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“…Berglund, Lindstrom, DhejneHelmy and Savic (2008) measured cerebral activation patterns of (nonhomosexual) MtF transsexual individuals with positron emission tomography (PET) while smelling odorous steroids (AND, 4,16-androstadien-3-one, a metabolite of testosterone and EST, estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol, a derivate of estradiol). These socially relevant chemosignals can be found in human secretions of males or females (Gower & Ruparelia, 1993;Thysen, Elliott, & Katzman, 1968) and differentially activate hypothalamic networks in males and females (Savic, Berglund, Gulyas, & Roland, 2001 (Kruijver et al, 2000;Zhou et al, 1995) (see paragraph "Brain morphometry"). In the rat, the BSTc has been shown to mediate pheromone signalling, in humans the BSTc and the anterior hypothalamus are reciprocally connected (Eiden, Hökfelt, Brownstein, & Palkovits, 1985).…”

Section: Findings From Task-based Functional Neuroimaging Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The transsexual brain – A review of findings on the neural basis of transsexualism

Smith

Junger

Derntl

et al. 2015

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

148

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“…Most published studies investigating the effect of AND on neural processes also included another potential human pheromone, namely estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST) (Savic et al, 2001, 2005, 2009; Berglund et al, 2006, 2008; Hillert et al, 2007; Ciumas et al, 2009). EST has, among others, been detected as a natural component of the urine in pregnant women (Thysen et al, 1968). Interestingly, the administration of this estrogen-like steroid causes an effect complementary to AND.…”

Section: Neuronal Correlates Of Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender effects and sexual-orientation impact on androstadienone-evoked behavior and neural processing

et al. 2014

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In humans, the most established and investigated substance acting as a chemosignal, i.e., a substance that is excreted from the body, is 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND). AND, which is found in sweat and saliva, is known to be responsible for influencing several variables, such as psychophysiological status, behavior, as well as cortical processing. The aim of the present review is to give insight into the variety of AND effects, with special regard to specific cross-sexual characteristics of this putative human chemosignal, emphasizing the neural activation patterns and factors such as contextual conditions. This review highlights the importance of including those contributing factors into the analysis of behavioral as well as brain-related studies.

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Identification of estra-1,3,5 (10) ,16-tetraen-3-ol (estratetraenol) from the urine of pregnant women (1)

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Brain response to putative pheromones in lesbian women

Brain response to putative pheromones in lesbian women

The transsexual brain – A review of findings on the neural basis of transsexualism

Gender effects and sexual-orientation impact on androstadienone-evoked behavior and neural processing

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