Effect of Spontaneous and Induced Infections upon Development of Mouse Sarcoma 180. ∗

Abstract

It has been recently observed that bacterial factors capable of eliciting the phenomenon of local skin reactivity to bacterial filtrates also produce, upon intravenous injections, selective hemorrhagic necrosis in transplantable malignant tumors of guinea pigs, mice and rats (Gratia and Linz, 1 Shwartzman and Michailovsky, 2 Duran-Reynals, 3 and Apitz. 4 The work described deals with the effect of spontaneous and induced bacterial infections upon the development of mouse sarcoma 180.

The antagonistic and inhibitory effect of Trypanosomas, Bacillus tuberculosis, Bacillus bulgaricus thermophilicus and B. anthrax upon the development of mouse and rat transplantable tumors was previously reported by Daels, 5 Karczag, Csaba and Nemeth, 6 Roskin and Exempliarskaia, 7 and Boccolari-Segolini. 8

Growth of Sarcoma 180 in normal mice. In a healthy stock of mice the tumor gives 100% of takes. Within the first 2 weeks following inoculation the mortality rate is low (7 to 8%). According to Woglom, no fluctuations in growth energy and no seasonal influences on the growth of the tumor are observed. Based on inoculations of thousands of mice in the Crocker Institute for Cancer Research, spontaneous cure takes place in approximately 1.33%. In the experiments of the author of this paper, 2 weeks after the inoculation, about 50% of mice showed tumors measuring from 1.5×2 cm. to 2×2 cm. (large tumors) and the remaining, tumors measuring from 1×1 cm. to 1×1 1/2 cm. (average tumors).

Growth of Sarcoma 180 in mice infected with B. enteritidis. Observations were made on a group of 610 mice infected spontaneously with B. enteritidis. Twenty-five and four-tenths per cent died during 12 days following tumor inoculation. Cultures of the tumor tissue, and pleural fluids, hearts blood and liver of the dead and many of the surviving mice showed B. enteritidis. Two weeks following inoculation of the tumor, 377 surviving mice were examined. Of these no mice showed large tumors; 46% showed average tumors, 31% showed tiny necrotic tumors, and 23% no tumors.