Breaking Down the Resistance of Albino Mice to the Transplantation of Tumors Induced by 1:2:5:6-Dibenzanthracene in a Different Strain of Albino Mice

Abstract

The difficulty encountered in transplantation of cancerous tissue, even from one strain of animals into another of the same species, has long been recognized (Loeb, 1901). Lately, the careful observations of many investigators (Strong, 1922; Wood and Curtis, 1922; Loeb, 1918; Woglom, 1929), particularly those on the transplantability of the spontaneous mouse carcinoma (Bittner, 1929, 1933, 1935) and of the induced mouse sarcoma (Andervont, 1934, 1935), have established the fact that the malignant tissues arising in mice of brother-to-sister mating strains is transplantable only into individuals of the same strain or, to a lesser degree, hybrids of that strain. Andervont (1934) showed this strain specificity for the induced 1:2:5:6-dibenzanthracene tumors in a number of strains of mice. He found that 4 tumors induced in the A strain of mice, when inoculated into 17 mice of the same strain, gave 17 tumors; but when inoculated into 23 mice of C₃H strain, 25 mice of D strain, and 20 mice of stock albino strain, failed to produce a single tumor. Two tumors induced in CBA strain, inoculated into 10 mice of CBA strain, gave rise to tumors in 5 of the animals; but when inoculated into 10 mice of C₃H strain and 6 mice of D strain gave completely negative results. Two tumors induced in mice of M strain, inoculated into 19 mice of M strain, resulted in the growth of a tumor in every instance, but failed to give rise to a single tumor when inoculated into 13 mice of D strain and 7 mice of C₃H strain. Two tumors induced in mice of D strain, inoculated into 29 mice of D strain, resulted in 29 tumors, but failed to produce any tumor growth when inoculated into 11 mice of C₃H strain and 8 mice of M strain. A tumor induced in a mouse of C₃H strain gave rise to 18 tumors when inoculated into 18 mice of C₃H strain, but remained negative in 8 mice of CBA strain and 6 mice of D strain. In our own experiments, using a pure inbred strain of Bagg albino mouse, we found that the tumors induced in brother-to-sister mating strains were transplantable 100 per cent into mice of the same strain, but not into mice of different inbred strains. Fragments of tumors induced in C₃H, in A, in dilute brown and in C₅₇ strains of mice, inoculated into more than 100 Bagg albino mice, in no instance gave rise to a tumor. On the other hand, fragments of these tumors never failed to grow in mice of the same strain as that in which the tumors arose. From these numerous experiments it would seem justifiable to conclude that induced 1:2:5:6-dibenzanthracene tumors are transplantable only into mice of the strain in which these tumors originate.