Influence of milk source on transplantability of histocompatible mammary tumours in mice

It is confirmed that C3H mammary tumours are much more easily transplantable in histocompatible recipients when these have been reared on C3H milk, than when they have been reared on milk from the inbred Swiss/B strain. By contrast, A.CA mammary tumours transplanted in histocompatible hosts reared on A.CA or Swiss/B milk, grow almost equally well in both sorts of recipient. Thus, rearing on Swiss/B milk has different effects on the transplantability of mammary tumours of C3H and A.CA. On the other hand, recipients which were reared on C3H or A.CA milks accept grafts of C3H mammary tumours about equally, suggesting that milks from A.CA and C3H have the same effect on the transplantability of C3H mammary tumours. The different action of Swiss/B milk on tumours of C3H and A.CA seems best attributed to differences between C3H and A.CA tumours or between mouse strain genotypes. By contrast, the transplantability of C3H mammary tumours is significantly changed when the recipients were reared on milk from the RIII strain instead of C3H. These facts suggest that the milk from RIII has an action which differs from that of both C3H and A.CA in this respect. The data are discussed on the basis of a differential tollerance-inducing action of mammary tumour viruses (MTVs) which infect C3H, A.CA and RIII, and have an important role in tumour induction.