Abstract
The experiments described here were designed to determine whether males' capacity
to accelerate female pubertal development is reflected in females' urinary steroid
levels in mice, and whether steroids in males' urine are influenced by exposure to
developing females. In the first experiment, measures from urine collected daily from
female mice aged 31-59 days showed a gradual rise in 17β-estradiol levels and a distinct
linear rise in progesterone levels. In a second experiment, daily steroids were measured
in females aged 30-42 days while they were either housed alone or underneath two novel
outbred males. Females exposed to males showed accelerated development at day 43 in
uterine weight, and to a lesser extent in ovarian and whole-body weights. Average
steroid levels did not significantly differ between conditions, but intra-individual
variance in estradiol measures was greater in male-exposed than in isolated females.
Creatinine levels were higher in isolated females. Males exposed to developing females
excreted higher levels of estradiol in their urine compared to isolated males. These
data suggest that excreted steroids can reflect general pubertal development, but
may not fully reflect substantial morphological impacts of exposure to novel males.
Elevations of estrogen levels in males exposed to developing females could help to
account for precocious puberty in such females.
Key words
17β-estradiol - ELISA - excretions - mice - non-invasive - estrous cycling - progesterone
- puberty - urine - Vandenbergh effect
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Correspondence
Denys deCatanzaro
Department of Psychology·Neuroscience & Behaviour·McMaster University
Hamilton ON L8S 4K1
Telefon: +1/905/525-9140 ext. 23014
Fax: 1/905/529-6225
eMail: decatanz@mcmaster.ca
