Changes in strain-specific urine odors of mice due to bone marrow transplantations

The change in strain-specific urine odors which appears after bone marrow transplantations was systematically examined in mice in order to demonstrate an influence of the hematopoietic system on urinary chemo-signals. Four mice were trained in a Y maze to discriminate two fully allogeneic mouse strains via their urine odors. Urine samples obtained from three inbred strains, from syngeneic reconstituted mice, and from allogeneic reconstituted chimeras were combined in a number of 'transfer of training' tests. The strain-specific urine odors of the recipients were changed by a fully allogeneic bone marrow transplant. Since this change could not be found in syngeneic reconstituted mice, we concluded that it was caused by the graft. Experiments partly failed to demonstrate donor- and recipient-specific components in the urine odor of the chimeras.