Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research

About: Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Estrone & Estrogen. The organization has 2195 authors who have published 2646 publications receiving 115809 citations. The organization is also known as: Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.

Estrogen assays using the rat uterus.

Abstract: THE use of the spayed rat’s uterus as an end-point for estrogen assay was suggested by Bulbring and Burn (1935). Dorfman et al. (1936) and Lauson et al. (1939) used the uterine response of the intact immature rat for estrogen assay. Neither of these studies nor the studies of Astwood (1938) who described a 6-hour test and also used the intact immature rat uterus contained statistical analysis of the data. Emmens (1950) calculated the precision of the data of Lauson et al. (1939) and found that if a total of 40 rats are used in a 4-point assay, the expected minimal limits of error are approximately (P = 0.95) 81 to 124%. This report was designed to study the utility of immature rat uteri as an end-point for the quantitative bioassay of estrogens using both the subcutaneous and oral routes of administration and to study the relative oral activity of various estrogen sulfates.

The Vomeronasal Organ and Accessory Olfactory System in the Hamster

Abstract: The vomeronasal organ in the hamster became a source of great interest when Powers and Winans reported in 1975 that vomeronasal nerve damage produced some deficits in male mating behavior but that almost complete destruction of the olfactory epithelium did not. At about the same time Singer, O’Connell and coworkers showed that a pure chemical. Dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), could be isolated from hamster vaginal discharge (HVD), and accounted for much of the attractiveness of the discharge. We were therefore interested in studying the electrophysiological responses of the vomeronasal system to components of hamster vaginal discharge and other chemicals. Adrian (1955) and Tucker (1963) had failed to elicit electrical activity in the vomeronasal nerve and accessary olfactory bulb (AOB) of the rabbit when odors were simply blown over the entrance to the vomeronasal duct. This was also our experience with the hamster, presumably because no odor molecules could reach the receptor epithelium sequestered inside the vomeronasal organ. When the odor can reach the receptors, odor responses can be evoked. Figure 1 shows the response of a single unit recorded in the accessory olfactory bulb to odor blown over the surgically exposed vomeronasal epithelium in the hamster. The diagram at the right shows the experimental setup. At the top left is a peristimulus time histogram for four repetitions of amyl acetate stimulation. These data are replotted below as firing rate above or below prestimulus spontaneous rate (zero on ordinate). There is a clear response to amyl acetate which starts within the first second and peaks within the first five seconds.