Repeated miscarriage can lead to olfactory system, Weizmann Institute of Science scientists discover

Newswise — The scent we emit is a form of body language that can affect relationships more than we are aware of.New research from the laboratory Professor Noam Sobel The Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that this “chemical communication” can extend to human reproduction.Was research Posted on eLifeFound that women suffering from a condition known as recurrent miscarriage of unknown origin (uRPL) treat men’s body odor, especially messages about husband’s body odor, differently than other women. These findings may point a new direction in the search for causes and prevention of this poorly understood disorder.

Professor Sobel and his team at the Institute’s Department of Neurobiology named after the discoverer Hilbrux, who discovered some cases of uRPL in 1959 when pregnant mice were exposed to the body. The odor of men who were not pregnant fathers, who thought it might be related to human changes in the Bruce effect, almost always abort. It is not fully understood why this happens, but the general rationale is that women “choose” to have an abortion because of the chemical message that new “healthy” men are in town. Is to do.

Can a similar effect occur in women? An astonishing estimate of 50% of all human concepts, and about 15% of documented human pregnancies, end with spontaneous abortion. Due to ethical considerations, researchers were clearly unable to repeat Bruce’s experiments in humans. The team instead sought circumstantial evidence.

In order for the Bruce effect to occur in mice, females must remember the body odor of their father’s male. To test this in humans, researchers presented participants with three odorants. One is from a T-shirt worn by a spouse and the other is from a T-shirt worn by another man. They found that women with uRPL could identify their spouse by odor, but not control women. When I retested with a regular odorant to see if the uRPL odor was overall better, the test improved slightly.

The ability of uRPL women to identify their spouse by scent was noteworthy. “Some of these women said,’Oh, my husband is here,'” in part of an experiment where she didn’t know what she smelled. Reut Weiss Gross, a research student who jointly leads the research. This never happened in control women.

Further testing suggests that women with uRPL are not only good at picking up spouse odors, but may also experience male body odor in a completely different way. Women affected by uRPL were asked to evaluate men’s body odor on a variety of scales, including factors such as fertility and sexual attraction, as well as standard measures of comfort and strength. , The odor description and grading method was unique. The answer was very different from that of the control woman.

At the final stage of the study, the experimenter used both structural and functional brain imaging to study the participants. Structural images revealed that women with uRPL had a smaller olfactory bulb, which was the first brain relay of the sense of smell. Using functional images, scientists have found an increased response of uRPL to male body odor in the female hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a region of the brain that is particularly involved in the regulation of pregnancy and overall hormonal regulation and plays an important role in the Bruce effect in mice.

“The loss of these pregnancies seems to be’unknown’because doctors are looking for uterine problems, but also the brain, especially the olfactory brain,” says Weiss Gross. Professor Sobel warns: “Our findings never prove that the olfactory system or body odor causes miscarriage, because correlations are not causal. However, our findings are poorly controlled. It points to a novel and potentially important direction for state research. “

The study was co-led by Dr. Liron Rozenkrantz, Dr. Reut Weissgross, and Dr. Tali Weiss, all in Professor Sobel’s lab, and in collaboration with Professor Howard Carp, who is responsible for the uRPL clinic at Tel’s Sheba Medical Center. It was. Hashomer.

Professor Noam Sobel’s work is supported by his Azrieli National Institute for Human Brain Imaging. Norman and Helen Asher Center for Human Brain Imaging; Nadia Jagrom Institute for Study of Olfactory Neurobiology; Rob and Cheryl Machuan Foundation for Brain Studies. And Sonia T. Marshak. Professor Sobel is the incumbent professor of neurobiology at Sara and Michael Sela.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel is one of the world’s leading interdisciplinary research institutes. The institute’s strong scientific community of 3,800 is engaged in research that addresses critical issues in medicine and health, energy, technology, agriculture, and the environment. Outstanding young scientists from around the world have advanced degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Fineberg Graduate School. The discoveries and theories of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have had a major impact on the quality of life of millions of people around the world, as well as on the wider scientific community.