Thyroid Hormone Effects on the Peripheral Olfactory System

甲状腺激素对周围嗅觉系统的影响

• 批准号: 9410637
• 负责人: William Roberts
• 金额: $ 11.27万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-03-15 至 1996-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9410637&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Thyroid; Hormone; Effects; Peripheral; Olfactory

Roberts, William M. IBN 94-10637 The ability to recognize familiar locations by their sights, sounds and smells is a common phenomenon. In salmon, who migrate great distances from fresh water streams to vast salt-water oceans, and ultimately, back to their home streams to reproduce, the ability to identify their home streams is crucial to species survival. But how is it that these fish recognize their home environments? One possible mechanism is the incorporation of familiar smells into memory which occurs during the parr smolt in salmon. During smolting, a physical transformation takes place as does a maturation of olfactory memory. Additionally, smolting is accompanied by a marked increase in thyroid hormone levels. Drs. Roberts and Takahashi will examine the role of thyroid hormones in the development of olfactory memory. Olfactory receptor cells born at the time of the parr smolt will be chemically marked and the effect of exogenous thyroid hormone treatment to enhance their survival will be determined. Moreover, structural changes in the olfactory bulb of the brain at smolting and modulation of those changes by thyroid hormones will be assessed. In addition to examination of the structural changes occurring in the brain at the time of smolting, functional changes in the sensitivity of the olfactory receptor cells to odorants will be examined. These studies have the potential to provide a breakthrough in understanding the physical basis of memory. Further, migration of salmon is of considerable commercial interest. This research has the potential to allow man to devise methods for guiding salmon to their birthplaces following novel pathways that may enhance the survival of the species.

通过他们的视觉、声音和气味来识别熟悉地点的能力是一种普遍现象。对于鲑鱼来说，它们从淡水溪流长途迁徙到广阔的咸水海洋，并最终回到它们的家乡溪流繁殖，识别家乡溪流的能力对物种的生存至关重要。但这些鱼是如何识别它们的家庭环境的呢？一种可能的机制是将熟悉的气味融入到记忆中，这发生在鲑鱼的幼崽孵化过程中。在孵化过程中，身体发生了变化，嗅觉记忆也成熟了。此外，排卵还伴随着甲状腺激素水平的显著增加。Drs。Roberts和Takahashi将研究甲状腺激素在嗅觉记忆发展中的作用。在幼崽出生时出生的嗅觉受体细胞将被化学标记，并将确定外源性甲状腺激素治疗以提高其存活率的效果。此外，将评估在孵化时大脑嗅球的结构变化以及甲状腺激素对这些变化的调节。除了检查在孵化时大脑中发生的结构变化外，还将检查嗅觉受体细胞对气味的敏感性的功能变化。这些研究有可能为理解记忆的物理基础提供突破。此外，鲑鱼的迁徙具有相当大的商业利益。这项研究有可能让人类设计出新的方法，引导鲑鱼沿着新的路径回到它们的出生地，这可能会提高该物种的存活率。