[The LOUVAIN rat and its importance in cancerology]

The LOUVAIN rat model is characterized by a high incidence of spontaneous tumors which is extremely rare in animals. Presently, the spectrum of monoclonal immunoglobulins synthetized by these tumors is the largest ever discovered in animals. Particularly, the LOUVAIN rat tumors produced the only IgD and IgE monoclonal immunoglobuling discovered in an animal species up to now. The contributions of this model to experimental cancerology were multiple: some of them originate in its high incidence, its anatomopathological type or its production of homogenous proteins, others, in the antigenic properties of the monoclonal immunoglobulins synthetized by these tumors, allowing the study of their natural analogues in absolutely new experimental conditions.