Our nose, paranasal sinuses, as well as the throat (pharynx) are part of the upper respiratory tract, which consists of two parts. Anatomically, the external and internal parts of the nose can be illustrated. The first consists of nasal bones and nasal cartilages and the internal nose is formed by the nasal cavity and the nasal concha also known as turbinates (choanae), are separated by the nas...

Beginning with their discovery by Buck & Axel (1991), a series of significant advances mark our increased understanding of odor receptors (ORs) and their roles in both odor transduction and axon coalesence (Imai & Sakano, 2008). Somewhat unexpectedly, the family of 1200+ ORs (Zhang & Firestein, 2002) found in the main olfactory epithelium exhibit little homology to those found in the vomeronasa...

Two large and divergent families of G-protein-coupled receptors (V1Rs and V2Rs) are expressed in subsets of neurons in the vomeronasal organ. These receptors are likely to mediate pheromone responses, but it appears that many V2R genes may encode expressed pseudogenes rather than functional proteins. Therefore we have raised antibodies to representative V2Rs and show labeling of vomeronasal neu...

observed with a variety of molecular markers. For examThe main olfactory system of mammals recognizes the ple, the Ga protein Gi2 is expressed at high levels only universe of odorants using as many as a thousand rein apical neurons, while the Ga protein Go is expressed lated G protein–coupled receptors (Buck and Axel, at high levels only in basal neurons (Halpern et al., 1995; 1991). Oddly enou...

Vision, hearing, olfaction, and cognitive function are essential components of healthy and successful aging. Multiple studies demonstrate relationship between these conditions with cognitive function. The present article focuses on hearing loss, visual impairment, olfactory loss, and dual sensory impairments in relation to cognitive declination and neurodegenerative disorders. Sensorineural org...

The development of the olfactory organ in the prenatal stages of mice (Patch/normal Balb/c) was studied. Eight stages were selected for this study; they are 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 18 days of gestation. At 9 days of gestation, the olfactory placodes begin to appear as two thickenings of epidermis, latero-ventral to the prosencephalon. At 10 days, the primary choanae appear; each lies betw...