Experimental immunology
Immunophenotypes of spontaneous lymphomas in inbred mice – a contribution to mouse models of human lymphoid neoplasms

The Haematopathology Subcommittee of the Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium has proposed that mouse lymphoid neoplasms be used as models of human lymphomas. As a contribution to the proposed classification of mouse lymphomas according to the WHO classification of human lymphoid neoplasms, we evaluated the immunophenotypes of spontaneously developed lymphomas in group of 99 AKR/W mice, 108 C57BL/6W mice, 51 C57BL/10W mice, 46 BALB/cW and 57 129/SvW mice. Two immunohistochemical methods, ABComplex and MOM^®, and flow cytometry with 13 monoclonal antibodies were used. In AKR/W mice, 99% of spontaneous lymphomas were Tcell derived, while this immunophenotype accounted for only 40% of lymphoid neoplasms in BALB/cW mice, 35% in C57BL/6W, 6% in C57BL/10W and 13% in 129/SvW mice. The T-cell derived lymphomas appeared earlier in AKR/W mice (median age 271 days) than in the other strains (median age 628-866 days) (p<0.0001). The incidence of B-cell lymphomas was highest in C57BL/10W mice (94%), 88% in 129/SvW mice, 65% in C57BL/6W mice, 60% in BALB/cW mice and only 0.01% in AKR/W mice. B-cell lymphomas developed only in aging mice (median age 787 days). The T-cell lymphomas had five different immunophenotypes, while the B-cell lymphomas had only one immunophenotype characteristic for mature B-cells. The lymphomas developed in these common mouse strains could be useful as models for human lymphomas.