TRANSPLANTABLE SALIVARY-GLAND TUMOR MODEL IN RAT

Research on salivary gland neoplasms dealt with experimentally induced primary tumors. Transplanted tumors can be used to control the variations that may exist among independently induced primaries and can simultaneously provide a way to obtain reproducible observations on any given tumor. Twenty Kx strain adult male rats were implanted with 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene in the left submandibular gland. Individual primary tumors appeared 11-32 wk later. Ten permanent subcutaneous lines out of 14 attempts were initiated by transplanting pieces from each primary into 30 day old Kx rats. Growth rates and histological characteristics were observed in the primaries and transplanted lines. There was increased anaplasia on transplantation, but after about 2 generations each line remained stable over subsequent generations. From these data 2 epidermoid carcinomas and 2 sarcomas were selected as permanent reproducible models.