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First published online March 21, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 1287-1295 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01531

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Androgen control of immunocompetence in the male house finch, Carpodacus mexicanus Müller

Pierre Deviche^* and Luis Cortez

School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501, USA

View larger version (13K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Standard curve of the ELISA assay used to measure plasma testosterone (T) concentrations (filled circles). The curve represents the percentage T bound to the antibody (B/B0x102) as a function of the T concentration added to the assay well. The graph also shows the curve obtained by assaying T in a house finch plasma sample at various dilutions (open circles). Each point represents one assay well.

View larger version (14K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Plasma testosterone (T) concentrations (median ±0.5 interquartile intervals), widths of the cloacal protuberance (CP; id.) and body masses (mean ± S.D.) of adult male house finches as a function of time after the beginning of T administration on Day 0. *Indicates a significant difference (Student–Newman–Keuls test, P<0.05) between T-treated (filled circles; N=10) and control (open circles; N=10) males.

View larger version (15K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. (A) Humoral immunity (plasma heterologous antibody concentration measured as the number of plate wells with hemagglutination; means + S.D.) in control (white columns; N=10) and testosterone-(T) treated (black columns; N=10) adult male house finches five (D39) and 21 (D55) days after the fourth injection of antigen (washed sheep red blood cells). Samples were collected 39 (D39) and 55 (D55) days after initiation of the T or control treatment. *Indicates a significant (P<0.05) difference between two groups (Student–Newman–Keuls test). (B) Cell-mediated immunity (difference in wing web thickness from day 63; medians ±0.5 interquartile intervals) measured one (D64), two (D65) and three (D66) days after one local injection of phytohemaglutinin to testosterone-treated (filled circles) and control (open circles) males. *Indicates a statistically significant difference between C and T males. #Indicates a difference between time points within a same group. See legend of A for additional comments.

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Number of lymphocytes (medians ±0.5 interquartile intervals) per 1000 erythrocytes counted on stained thin blood smears of adult male house finches treated with testosterone-filled (black circles; N=10) or control (white circles; N=10) Silastic capsules. Capsules were implanted on Day 0. All birds received one weekly injection of sheep red blood cells for 4 weeks starting on Day 13.