Allogeneic Bone Marrow Chimerism in Germ-free Mice. II. Prevention of Reticulum Cell Sarcomas in SJL/J Mice 1

Summary

Germ-free and conventional SJL/J mice develop reticulum cell sarcomas spontaneously, whereas C3H mice do not. Chimerism was established in lethally irradiated SJL/J mice by transplanted bone marrow cells from C3H mice. Conventional chimeric mice died of graft-versus-host disease, but germ-free chimeric mice survived indefinitely. At age 12 months, 95% of the germ-free SJL/J mice had reticulum cell sarcomas, while up to the age of 15 months, germ-free chimeric SJL/J mice had none.