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A histologic study was done on the spontaneously occurring hyperplastic and neoplastic lesions of the uterus, cervix, and vagina taken from a variety of inbred, hybrid, and backcross female mice. The most commonly observed neoplasm of the endometrium was stromal cell sarcoma, followed by adenocarcinoma, which occurred approximately half as frequently. Hyperplasia was the most commonly observed endometrial lesion occurring either as glandular, stromal, or both and was often cystic with the formation of polyps. Among the benign and malignant lesions other than endometrial, leiomyomas, hemangioendotheliomas and leiomyosarcomas were the most commonly encountered. Lesions in the mucosal cervix and vagina were comparatively rare and were observed in only a few animals. Females with hyperplastic and neoplastic lesions of the uterus, cervix, and vagina in this survey represented a small fraction of the large number of animals necropsied, emphasizing the relative infrequency of these spontaneous lesions in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay offers an overview of the history of the relations between science and Eastern Christianity based on Greek-language sources. The civilizations concerned are the Byzantine Empire, the Christian Orthodox communities of the Ottoman Empire, and modern Greece, as a case study of a national state. Beginning with the Greek Church Fathers, the essay investigates the ideas of theologians and scholars on nature. Neoplatonism, the theological debates of Iconoclasm and Hesychasm, the proposed union of the Eastern and Western Churches, and the complex relations with the Hellenic past all had notable impacts on the conception of science held by the Byzantine Orthodox. From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the Christian Orthodox world did not actively participate in the making of the new science that was developing in modern Europe. It had to deal with the assimilation of scientific ideas produced by Western Christianity, and its main concern was the “legitimacy” of knowledge that did not originate directly from its own spiritual tradition. Finally, with regard to the Greek state, beyond the specific points of contact between the sciences and Orthodox Christianity—pertaining, for example, to materialism, evolution, and the calendar—the essay presents the constant background engagement with religion visible in most public pronouncements of scientists and intellectuals.

Outcrosses between high tumor mouse strain DD and low-incidence strains BALB/c and C57BL to produce reciprocal F1 susceptible offspring of both types resulted in high incidences of mammary tumors in (DD female X BALB/c male)F1 and (DD female X C57BL male)F1 females but not in the reciprocal hybrids with DD as the male parent. The finding that transmission of murine mammary tumor virus (MuMTV) in DD was through the milk, as most often observed in mouse strains, further supported the uniqueness of strain GR in which MuMTV is transmitted by either parent.

C3H-AvyfB female mice were tested on bedding consisting only of low-resin pine and on bedding of pine plus cedar shavings. Tumor occurrences were similar in both groups of animals, with a slightly lower incidence and slightly higher average age for mammary gland tumors in the females on bedding of pine plus cedar. From these results, the high incidence of cancer in the C3H-AvyfB strain could not be attributed to the routine use of cedar shavings in the bedding material.

When low oncogenic milk-borne mammary tumor virus (MTV) of strain DD was tested in C3H-AvyfB mice, as compared with the similar strain C3HfB, mammary tumors occurred with a higher incidence and at lower age in C3H-AvyfBfDD (with DD-MTV) than in C3HfBfDD (with DD-MTV), as observed in virgin females. Since the effect of breeding tended to mask any difference between the breeders, mammary tumor incidences were similar with a slightly higher age at tumor occurrence in the C3H-AvyfBfDD females. Thus the C3H-AvyfB virgins (with the Avy gene) were almost as susceptible to mammary tumors with the less potent DD-MTV as were C3HfB virgins with the more virulent C3H-MTV of strain C3H.

Thirty C3H-AvyfB male mice from 3 to 15 months of age were killed, and the genesis of their hepatocellular neoplasms was studied. As the mice aged, the number of tumors per liver and mean diameter of the tumors increased. Histologically, the smallest tumors were composed of solid sheets of cells and were better differentiated than the largest tumors. Small foci of hepatocytes in prominent trabeculae formation was a common characteristic of large tumors. In addition, 18 metastatic hepatocellular carcinomas observed in aged C3H-AvyfB, C3HfC, C3H, C3HfB, (C3HfB x YBR)F1, or C57BL/6 mice were also included for a morphologic study of their primary and metastatic lesions. Invariably, the pulmonary metastases were composed of a well-differentiated sheet of hepatocytes that resembled those in the solid liver tumors. The smallest hepatocellular neoplasms appear to represent early stages in the development of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

Strain A females were milked and their milk was tested for mammary tumor virus (MTV) by the hyperplastic alveolar nodule test and for MTV antigen by microimmunodiffusion. An attempt was made to correlate these results with later occurrence of mammary tumors in the females. There was not full agreement between the results of the test for the presence of the MTV and those of the test for MTV antigen, and from these results it was impossible to predict accurately whether a specific female would later develop a tumor. It is concluded that, in this strain, factors other than the MTV can be the determinant in whether the individual female will develop a tumor.

Mammary tumorigenesis in C3H-A(vy)fB female mice is not due to milk-borne mammary tumor virus but to factors transmitted at conception. Prominent among these is the A(vy) gene which may increase the virulence or transmissibility of a variant of mammary tumor virus vertically transmitted by either parent, or may increase the tumorigenic response of the mammary tissue. These factors together with the influence of hormones of pregnancy resulted in the high incidence observed.