European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 10, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                F o c  animal Voles umans learn about sex research Bboyce Rensberger the Washington Poste arly in this Century discoverers of the chemical basis of life liked to say that thought is just a secretion of the brain. Eager to depose the ancient View that life Springs from a supernatural vital Force these researchers claimed that even the most human of Behaviours the ability to reason say or to love would someday be explained through the mechanisms of molecules and cells. Those people would be delighted with a growing Field of research that shows there is indeed a physiological basis for Behaviours such As monogamous bonding of male and female and parental nurturing of the Young at least among nonhuman mammals. Scientists at several institutions working mainly with mouse like Voles have found that family ties depend critically on the ebb and flow of specific chemicals in the brain. Perhaps not surprisingly one Way the brain is prompted to make these molecular mediators of social Devotion is through sexual stimulation. When these substances Are produced naturally or injected into the brain by researcher they cause Prairie Voles to become pair bonded quickly. And when blocking chemicals Are Given preventing the hormones from reaching their targets in the brain the animals remain unbounded. We All find it easy to accept the idea that there is a physiological basis for sexual behaviour said c. Sue Carter a Vole researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park. Now we re finding there is a physiology of monogamy in Voles and it s easy to see parallels to humans. We Don t really know anything about the basis of human social behaviour but there certainly Are intriguing  two chemicals both made in the brain s pituitary gland have been found to play key roles in Vole social behaviour the hormones oxytocin and Vaso pressing which Are present in All mammals. They Are very Small protein like molecules called peptides although almost identical they play very different roles in the body. Obstetricians have Long known for example that oxytocin in the bloodstream stimulates uterine contractions at birth and milk production in the breasts. A synthetic version is Given to induce labor. Vaso pressing also called anti diuretic hormone regulates blood pressure by constricting blood vessels and acts on the kidneys to reduce the amount of water extracted from blood to make urine. Doctors give it to control some internal bleeding and bed wetting. Only recently however have scientists discovered that these chemicals also act within the brain to influence behaviour. In one study injections of oxytocin made ovulating female rats More eager to mate causing them to spend More time swaying their backs to present their genitals to male rats. Mother rats dosed with oxytocin spend More time grooming their pups. It gives male rats instant erections. Sex also stimulates these hormones in humans. Blood samples taken As men masturbated showed oxytocin and Vaso pressing Levels rising several fold. Oxytocin also rises in masturbating women sometimes enough to stimulate the breasts to exude milk. You take All these observations and i m just speculating you begin to get a picture of oxytocin As a pro social Neur hormone Carter said. Researchers say Voles mate quickly and apparently permanently. While unrated mates and females Are sociable with All other Voles once a couple mates a powerful Bond is formed apparently triggered by the sex act itself which stimulates release of oxytocin and Vaso pressing. A mated Vole couple also stops being Friendly to other Voles and the males especially become hostile to outsiders. It is a very sudden very dramatic transition said Thomas r. Insel who experiments with Voles at a National Institute of mental health Laboratory in Poolesville my. Before mating these Guys Are your typical Walt Disney animals Friendly to everybody. After mating they turn  Insel interprets the behaviour As mate  the transition also alters tissues. A Virgin female does not come into heat or begin to ovulate until she detects the pheromones of a mature unfamiliar male. Within a Day she comes into heat and begins a frantic Day and a half of sex mating every 45 minutes on average. The sex stimulates her to ovulate. Afterwards the two Are bound for life. They become nearly inseparable often sitting Side by Side. When the Young Are born the male takes As Active a parental role As the female. Researchers have established that oxytocin Levels soar during the mating period. That the hormone is essential has been proved in experiments that show pair bonding fails to arise if the female is simultaneously Given a drug that blocks oxytocin from binding to receptors on certain brain cells. When the right molecule plugs itself into a receptor it activates processes within the cell. Sex and the single Vole the biology of monogamy male partner s scientists have found that when Virgin Prairie Voles of opposite sexes meet and mate the sexual stimulation triggers one part of each brain to release hormones that switch on other parts of the brain instantly activating hard wired behavioural patterns that turn the animals into a couple bonded for life. The same hormones Are produced in the human brain during sex. �., in the Laboratory Voles Are tested for pair bonded status in an apparatus like this. A male is tethered in each of two boxes and a female is placed in the Middle Box. Though she May visit the strange male and even mate with him in no mammal species does monogamy automatically include sexual Fidelity she will choose to spend far More time with her partner. Voles sometimes called Meadow mice Are Small rodents that live Over most of the country. Although Prairie Voles usually form monogamous pairs their cousins in the mountains remain solitary coming together Only to mate. Both varieties belong to the same Genus but their brains respond differently to the hormones produced during mating. Monogamous characteristic male an female stay together aggression Between males after mating male an female parental care hormone oxytocin in female Vaso pressing in male Vaso pressing  males oxytocin i females typical Behaviours of monogamous Voles include the couple sitting Side by Side males driving off strange males a form of mate guarding and care of the Young by both sexes. Prairie Voles display All three after mating. Mountain Voles do not sources sue Carter and Tom Insel by John Anderson the Washington pcs an adult Goat relaxes with her kid in the Sun. S4s int better goats through bioengineer in by Wauran Neergaard the associated press Illy and Nilly look like any two baby Billy goats munching on Hay and gazing wide eyed at the scientist examining their budding horns. However Willy and Nilly Are the world s first test tube goats. Their birth represents the next chapter in barnyard biotechnology in their Case altering genes to Breed goats with better milk. The sky s the limit said or. Benjamin Brackett of the University of Georgia in Athens cuddling a squirming kid. If we could alter the composition of Goat s milk just a bit instead of nature s most nearly perfect food it would be perfect. Or people could get their Medicine from milk. We have All sorts of ideas he said. In a relatively new Field scientists Are creating animals with genes different from their species. These transgenic animals Are supposed to have better growth better resistance to disease and improved meat and  results have been mixed. It s an incredibly powerful technique but it s in its infancy said Richard Bowen of Colorado state University. We have a lot to learn he had to destroy a transgenic calf when a Gene that made it More muscular began to kill it. In simple animals scientists just insert a new Gene after they Lay their eggs. Auburn University researchers inserted a growth Gene into Carp and Catfish this Way making them grow bigger faster. Colorado state is trying to introduce genes into mosquitoes that would prevent them from transmitting diseases such As malaria. But it takes sophisticated Fertility treatments to alter genes in larger animals. That s where Willy and Nilly come in. Scientists want to alter goats mammary glands so they produce milk with More vitamins or even medication in it. Tufts University has bred a special protein into Goat Nilk that doctors can use to make heart disease Medicine. Researchers painstakingly extract a fertilized egg from a pregnant Goat inject the new Gene replant the egg and wait to see whether a transgenic kid will be bom. Some come out transgenic and some do not said Donna Lavoie of enzyme corp., which bought Tufts research. To be viable there has to be a sure fast Way of Breeding transgenic goats Brackett said. So he figured out How to create them in test tubes. Test tube human babies have been a reality for More than a decade but replicating that technology in animals has been difficult Brackett said. Doctors have dozens of human eggs to work with and they can add sperm when the eggs Are ready. But goats ovulate Only one or two eggs. And the sperm has to mature at the same rate As the eggs and be added at the precise moment. It took Brackett years to find the right Way to handle this delicate reproduction but now he can produce an embryo ready to be injected with new genes Irr just 15 hours. Although Willy and Nilly born in August Are not transgenic Brackett s technique clears the Way for faster easier reproduction of transgenic goats he said. Next Brackett wants to alter the genes in goats mammary glands so they produce milk with the few vitamins and amino acids now missing from nature s almost perfect food or to add proteins that drug companies can extract to make medicines. We re All working on it now at the level of. A mouse he said. But i expect to see significant Progress in the Field in about five  the government is furiously developing regulations to keep up according to Alvin Young of the . Department of agriculture which funds about $60 million in genetics research. Ensuring that transgenic animals won t harm people or the environment will be Paramount he said. Many places Are standing by ready to move the second that guidance is provided he said. One problem is Public acceptance the human food safety issues the animal welfare  i animal welfare weighs heavy on the scientists minds As Well. People expect us to be smart enough to make something perfect the first time said Boeti. They View failures As kind of a Frankenstein thing. But there were failures to develop the first vaccines and the first heart surgeries. The Point is transgenic technology holds a lot of Promise for understanding Normal biology and treating  altering Catfish to make them grow faster is easy creating 4 Goat with better milk is not. 18 tin stars and strips a in Day nov mar 10,1993 Thi stars and stripes 19