BDII

Inbr. F?+50.

Colour: Albino.

Genet: a, c, h, P.

Origin: See BDI.

---

Characteristics

Frequent microphthalmia. Genetic markers described for sublines of this strain in the USA differ from those in Europe, suggesting that the US sublines were contaminated at some time in the past with LEW (Czerwinski and Crowell 1986). Mean life-span of BDII/Han 33.6_4.7 months in males and 22.5_4.4 months in females, with 91% of females developing endometrial carcinomas, but with a more varied range of tumours in males. These include 26% adrenal phaeochromocytomas, 23% histiocytic sarcomas, 18% pituitary tumours and 14% haemangiomas. About 12% of aged male BDII/Han develop diverticula of the stomach (Kaspareit-Rittinghausen and Deerberg 1987). High incidence of hormone-dependent endometrial adenocarcinoma. A transplantable cell line (RUCA-II) derived from such a tumour in BDII rats can produce these tumours in ectopic sites, but only in nude mice (in contrast with RUCA-I derived from DA rats). The rate of proliferation is not reduced by tamoxifen. See also strain DA (Schutze et al, 1992). About 90% of females develop spontaneous endometrial carcinoma which can be prevented by lifelong administration of the progestin melengestrol acetate (Deerberg et al, 1995).

---

Czerwinski M. J. and Crowell J. S. Jr. (1986) Genetic monitoring of the rat (Ratus norvegicus). Rat News Lett. 17, 9-10.

Deerberg F., Pohlmeyer G., Lorcher K., and Petrow V. (1995) Total suppression of spontaneous endometrial carcinoma in BDII/Han rats by melengestrol acetate. Oncology 52, 319-325.

Kaspareit-Rittinghausen J. and Deerberg F. (1987) Diverticula of the forestomach in male BDII/Han rats. Z. Versuchstierk. 30, 229-231.

Schutze N., Kraft V., Deerberg F., Winking H., Meitinger D., Ebert K., Knuppen R., and Vollmer G. (1992) Functions of estrogens and antiestrogens in the rat endometrial adenocarcinoma cell-lines RUCA-I and RUCA-II. Int. J. Cancer 52, 941-949.

---

INBRED STRAINS OF RATS
Updated 9 Apr. 1998
Michael FW Festing
MRC Toxicology Unit, Hodgkin Building,
University of Leicester, UK