AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 273, Issue 3 934-R941, Copyright © 1997 by American Physiological Society
Female protein, amyloidosis, and hormonal carcinogenesis in Turkish hamster: differences from Syrian hamster
J. E. Coe, W. Cieplak, W. J. Hadlow and M. J. Ross
Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Hamilton, Montana 59840, USA.
The Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) has been widely used as an
experimental animal and is a unique model for three sex hormone-regulated
events: 1) estrogen-initiated renal carcinogenesis, 2) sex-limited
expression of amyloidosis, a ubiquitous disease, and 3) sex hormone control
of a serum amyloid P component (SAP) called female protein (FP). In this
study, we evaluated the closely related Turkish hamster (Mesocricetus
brandti) for these three events and found some very different responses: 1)
estrogen-initiated renal carcinogenesis was not found in Turkish hamster,
2) amyloidosis was not sex limited and actually was a rare disease in the
Turkish hamster, and 3) Turkish hamsters did express a sex-limited SAP-FP
in serum that was antigenically identical and structurally very similar
(97.5%) to Syrian hamster SAP-FP. However, acute phase regulation of SAP-FP
synthesis was different, and serum levels of this pentraxin were much lower
than those found in the Syrian hamster. On the other hand, in contrast to
findings in the Syrian hamster, hepatic tumors were relatively common in
normal and especially in estrogen-treated Turkish hamsters. Therefore,
although they are closely related, these two Mesocricetus hamster species
have markedly dissimilar responses to sex hormones.
