The Human Vomeronasal (Jacobson's) Organ: A Short Review of Current Conceptions, With an English Translation of Potiquet's Original Text

Abstract

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is a structure located in the anteroinferior portion of the nasal septum and is part of the accessory olfactory system. The VNO, together with its associated structures, has been shown to play a role in the formation of social and sexual behavior in animals, thanks to its pheromone receptor cells and the stimulating effect on the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone. The VNO was first described as a structure by the Dutch botanist and anatomist Frederik Ruysch in 1703 while dissecting a young male cadaver. This finding, however, is widely contradicted due to no elaborate descriptions being made by the Ruysch. The description of the VNO is more widely attributed to the Danish surgeon Ludwig Jacobson, with whom the VNO has been synonymized, as in 1803 he described the structure in a variety of mammals. Whilst Jacobson extensively studied prior reports of the VNO, he publicly denied its existence in humans. Following these discoveries and some contradictory statements in 1891, M. Potiquet published one of the more influential reviews on the topic. To this day, despite the first report of the organ's existence being made in a human and many articles stating its presence and supporting its function, the presence of a VNO in humans is still widely debated upon.

Keywords: history; jacobson's organ; m. potiquet; vomeronasal organ.

Figure 1. Endoscopic view of the human vomeronasal organ located on the right side of the nasal septum (arrow)

Figure 2. 3D reconstruction of the nasal septum from a CT scan of the patient from the previous figure with the vomeronasal organ visible (arrow)

3D: three dimensional; CT: computer tomography

Figure 3. Histology of the human vomeronasal organ on the nasal septum of a 17th gestational week human fetus with ciliated estheziocytes, supporting cells and ganglion cells

Hematoxilin and Eosin, original magnification 400x

Figure 4. Figure 1 of the original text

The septum of the nasal fossae. The septum presented here is not the first one that came. Of the eleven subjects of which we had dissected the nasal fossae last May, we chose this septum for the image, which, quite regular in its form, offered clearly defined and recognizable the anatomical particularities noted here. It belonged to a man of about forty years. The superior lip and a bit of the skin of the under septum were missing in the piece, entrusted to the draftsman. The aforementioned, by our advice, reconstructed schematically these parts, however by sparing the fabric a little too much and the distance of the orifice of the Jacobson's canal from the angle of the under septum and the superior lip is certainly lesser than the real distance l. Bead, constituted in part by Jacobson's cartilage. — 2. The orifice of the Jacobson's canal, in which a stylet has been introduced. — 3. Tubercule of the septum. — 4. Nasopalatine infundibulum responding in the skeleton to the nasopalatine canal. — 5. The orifice of the Sphénoïdal Sinus. — 6. Frontal Sinus.

Figure 5. Figure 2 of the original text

Graphic of a perforated nasal septum (perforating ulcer, syphilis?) located in a subject of approximately sixty years of age. The dotted rhombus a, b, c, d, on this septum, roughly limits the space in which the orifice of the Jacobson Canal was located in eighteen adult subjects, according to the measurements of M. A. Koelliker