Data from: Men’s preferences for women’s body odours are not associated with HLA

Body odours reportedly portray information about an individual's genotype at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC, called human leucocyte antigen, HLA, in humans). While there is strong experimental support for MHC-associated mating behaviour in animals, the situation in humans is more complex. A lot of effort has been spent on testing HLA-associated odour preferences of women. To date, only very few studies have looked at HLA-linked olfactory preferences in men and these studies have revealed inconsistent results. Here, we investigate men's HLA-associated preferences for women's body odours. Importantly, and in contrast to previous studies, these odours were gathered at peak fertility (i.e. just before ovulation) when any HLA-associated odour preferences should be strongest. We scrutinized whether men's preference for women's body odours is influenced by (i) the number of shared HLA alleles between men and women, (ii) HLA heterozygosity, and (iii) the frequency of rare HLA alleles. We found that men could readily differentiate between odours they found attractive and odours they found less attractive, but that these preferences were not associated with HLA. Specifically, men did not prefer odours from women who are HLA dissimilar, HLA heterozygous, or who have rare HLA alleles. Together, these findings suggest that HLA has no effect on men's odour preferences.据报道，人体气味可传递个体主要组织相容性复合体（major histocompatibility complex，MHC）的基因型信息；该复合体在人类中又被称为人类白细胞抗原（human leucocyte antigen，HLA）。尽管已有坚实的实验证据支持动物中存在与MHC相关的交配行为，但人类的相关情况更为复杂。学界已投入大量精力检验女性对HLA相关气味的偏好。截至目前，仅有极少数研究探讨了男性的HLA关联嗅觉偏好，且这些研究得出的结果并不一致。本研究旨在考察男性对女性人体气味的HLA相关偏好。值得注意的是，与既往研究不同，本研究采集的气味样本取自女性的受孕高峰期（即排卵前夕），此时任何与HLA相关的气味偏好都应最为显著。我们细致考察了男性对女性人体气味的偏好是否受以下三方面因素影响：(1) 男女双方共享的HLA等位基因（allele）数量；(2) HLA杂合性；(3) 稀有HLA等位基因的频率。研究结果显示，男性能够轻松区分自身认为有吸引力与吸引力较弱的气味，但这类偏好与HLA并无关联。具体而言，男性并未偏好HLA型别相异、HLA杂合或携带稀有HLA等位基因的女性气味。综合来看，上述研究结果表明，HLA对男性的气味偏好并无影响。