Antigen stimulation modifies social behavior and chemosignals in male laboratory mice

The injection of outbred ICR strain male mice with SRBC affected their dominance ability in pair-wise test. In pair-wise tests done without previous presentation of the smell of a contestant, the SRBC-treated males submitted to control males. This effect occurred within 3 days after the injection. However, on the third day after treatment, under conditions of getting pre-test olfactory information about a contestant, the dominance of SRBC treated-males over the control animals was observed. Perception of the contestant smell is known to lead to emotional reaction and could be accompanied by an increase in energy metabolism. This increase was significant in both the control submissive and SRBC-treated dominate males. Thus, the modification of mice smell perception due to antigen injection can affect the pair-wise competition.