[An experimental study on SRCA (subrenal capsule assay)--comparison of the test between normal and nude mice]

Six-day SRCA using normal mice developed by Bogden et al. is a promising in vivo chemosensitivity test. However, this method has a problem on the influence of the host reaction. We compared the tumor growth kinetics and host reaction between normal and nude mice. The tumor diameter increased until day 6 in normal and day 16 in nude mice, but the histological finding revealed many host reactive cells and few viable tumour cells on day 6 in normal mice, and well preserved tumour cells on day 16 in nude mice. These results were supported by flow cytometrical analysis. Autoradiogram using 3H-TdR showed a recovery of labeling index to the steady label by day 1. This index was similar between normal and nude mice. When antitumor activity of adriamycin, cisplatin or mitomycin C was compared with nude mice system, the order of effectiveness was the same as the system using nude mice implanted tumor cells subcutaneously and given the drugs intraperitoneally, but different in normal mice.