Astrocytomas in an inbred mouse strain

CXLVIII-CLSPONTANEOUS tumours of the central nervous system have rarely been recorded in the mouse, which is surprising, since this species has been so frequently studied in laboratories.In a survey of tumours of the central nervous system in animals by Luginbuhl (1963Luginbuhl ( , 1964) ) only two neuro-ectodermal tumours (an oligodendroglioma and a glioblastoma) were listed in the mouse.A cerebral tumour that was provisionally identified as an astrocytoma occurred in one mouse which, together with over 800 others, had received an injection of material from a slow virus degenerative encephalopathy of mink (Marsh et a!., 1969).Similarly, astrocytomas have been found only rarely in rats (Garner, Innes and Nelson, 1967;Bots, Kroes and Feron, 1968;Schardein, Fitzgerald and Kaump, 1968).The purpose of the present report is to describe a series of gliomas of the astrocytic