Abstract
Olfactory stimuli from food influence energy balance, preparing the body for digestion when food is consumed. Social chemosensory cues predict subsequent energetic changes required for social interactions and could be an additional sensory input influencing energy balance. We show that exposure to female chemostimuli increases metabolic rate in male mice and reduces body weight and adipose tissue expansion when mice are fed a high-fat diet. These responses are linked to detection of female chemostimuli via G-protein Gαo-expressing vomeronasal sensory neurons. Males with Gαo deleted in the olfactory system are fertile but do not show changes in body weight when paired with females and show severely blunted changes in energy expenditure when exposed to female bedding. These results establish that metabolic and reproductive responses to females can be partly uncoupled in male mice and that detection of female chemostimuli is a central regulator of energy metabolism and lipid storage.
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•Female olfactory cues reduce weight gain and improve metabolic health in male mice•Changes in body weight are mediated through Gαo-expressing olfactory neurons•Changes in weight with male reproduction require detection of olfactory cues•Energy expenditure after HFD is linked to higher BAT weight and UCP1 expression
Animal physiology; Behavioral neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience