A Comparison of Several Lines of Transgenic Mice Containing the SV40 Early Genes

Inoculation of simian virus 40 (SV40) into newborn hamsters can result in a broad spectrum of tumors derived from many tissue types (Tooze 1981). Subcutaneous injections of virus usually result in fibrosarcomas (Eddy et al. 1961); intracranial inoculations may produce gliomas, papillomas of the choroid plexus, and ependynomas (Gerber and Kirschstein 1962); and intravenous injections have given rise to leukemias, lymphomas, osteosarcomas, and reticulum cell sarcomas (Diamandopoulos 1972, 1978). In mice, attempts to induce tumors with SV40 have usually failed (see Tooze 1981). However, recent experiments suggest that small tumors may arise under special conditions of viral persistence and an altered host immune response (Ambramczuk et al. 1984). On the other hand, when the SV40 early-region genes were introduced into the germ line of mice, 65–90% of the transgenic mice developed tumors of a specific tissue type, the choroid plexus (Brinster et al. 1984 and pers. comm.). In these transgenic...