Skeletal muscle rhabdomyosarcomas in inbred laboratory mice

A total of 14 well differentiated rhabdomyosarcomas were diagnosed at necropsy in 10,000 mice. Of the 14 affected mice, ten were BALB/cJ, and there was one case each of A/HeJ, BALB/cByJ, C58/J, and C.B-17-scid/scid strains. Most often (10/14) tumors originated in the quadriceps muscles and metastases occurred in six cases. When submitted, affected mice were 2 to 8 months of age, with a mean age of 4 months. Tumor frequency for BALB/cJ mice was calculated to be 2.4/100,000 mice retained as breeders. No sexual dimorphisms were determined when data were correlated to actual numbers of each sex in the colony. All 14 primary tumors and metastases were positive by immunohistochemistry for the proteins pan myosin, sarcomeric actin, desmin, actin, and myosin, but were negative for smooth muscle actin, thus confirming the diagnosis. Using cell free homogenates of primary tumors, inoculated by intraperitoneal or intramuscular injection, tumors were not induced in either BALB/cJ or C58/J mice observed over a 22-week period. Southern blot analysis of DNA prepared from tumors and hybridized with a murine leukemia virus probe that recognizes both ecotropic and dualtropic viruses did not demonstrate viral genomic fragments in addition to those known to occur in each strain.