BUF

Inbr. F130 (NIH 1989).

Colour: Albino.

Genet: a, h, c.

Origin: Heston 1946 from Buffalo stock of H. Morris. To NIH in 1950 at F10.

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Characteristics

Lifespan and spontaneous disease

Low incidence of dental caries. Spontaneous tumours of anterior pituitary 30%, and of adrenal cortex 25% in older animals. Survival 58% at 2 years of age with thyroid carcinoma in 25% (Lindsey et al 1968). Low incidence of renal neoplasms (Snell 1967). High incidence of tumours of the anterior pituitary, adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex in animals over 18 months old (Snell 1965). In one line, BUF/Mna, thymomas occur spontaneously in 100% of males and 98% of females more than 18 months of age (Matasuyama et al 1986). Susceptibility appears to be due to a single autosomal dominant locus, Tsr-1. However, this line was reported to have been independently inbred from outbred stock so may be genetically distinct from other BUF substrains (Matsuyama et al 1988). Thymoma development appears to be due to an intrinsic abnormality of the thymic epithelium as thymus rudiments transplanted to nude rats also develop similar lesions (Taguchi et al, 1992). Abnormal proliferation signals to the thymic macrophages and/or their progenitor cells may be involved in the development of thymomas (Masuda et al 1992). At the pre-thymoma stage BUF rats have extremely large thymuses due to a gene Ten-1 located on chromosome 1. This gene may be identical to Tsr-1 (Murakumo et al, 1993, 1995).

High incidence of prenatal mortality (1/8=18%) early and (2/11=11%) late, but no congenital abnormalities detected (Shoji 1977).

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Immunology

Autoimmune thyroiditis see in 6/11 males at 36 weeks of age, but not seen in five other strains (Hajdu and Rona 1969). Spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis with mononucelear cell infiltration of the thyroid in 26% of animals over one year (Noble et al 1976). Autoimmune thyroiditis develops spontaneously and after the ingestion of 3-methylcolanthrene, but reaches nearly 100% after neonatal thymectomy (Silverman and Rose 1975a,b). Autoimmune thyroiditis is exacerbated by high iodine diet (Cohen and Weetman 1988). Poor immune response to sheep red blood cells (6/7) (Tada et al 1974). Epitope specificities of collagen-induced studied by Cremer et al (1992). Relatively resistant to the induction of autologous immune complex nephritis (Klassen et al 1971). Poor immune response to sheep red blood cells (Tada et al 1974). A synthetic polypeptide corresponding to residues 87-99 of myelin basc protein is antigenic and encephalitogenic in these rats (Jones et al, 1992). Susceptible to the induction of EAU by interphotoreceptor retinol-binding protein (cf WKAH, W/M, LEJ and LEW, but in contrast with TO) (Sasamoto et al, 1994). Susceptible to the induction of relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (an animal model of multiple sclerosis), which can be successfully treated by an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (Van Gelder and Van Bekkum, 1995).

Drugs and chemicals

Transplantable Morris hepatomas have been induced by several chemical agents (Morris and Wagner 1968, Morris et al 1970, Morris and Slaughter 1979). 2-acetylaminofluorine induces liver tumours in 10% of female and 70% of males and mammary tumours in 70% of females (Symeonidis 1954).

Low hepatic metabolism of ethylmorphine (7/10 im males 10/10 in females), but high metabolism of anilene (3/10 males, 1/10 females) (Page and Vesell 1969). Resistant to the induction of gastric tumours by N-methyl-N-nitro- N-nitrosoguanidine (Ohgaki et al 1983). Resistant to tumour induction by 3-methylcholanthrene, 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene and trypan blue, though the former two and Bordetella pertussis vaccine induce chronic thyroiditis (Reuber and Glover 1969, 1976). Resistant to the development of N-methyl-N'-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) induced gastric cancer though levels of adduct were same as in the susceptible ACI strain (Sugimura et al 1995).

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Reproduction

Intermediate breeding performance (5/12) and litter size (8/12) (Hansen et al 1973).

Physiology and Biochemistry

Liver gangliosides are of the a-type (cf ACI, LEA & LEW) (Kasai et al 1993).

High 10-week body weight in males (23/23) (Tanase et al 1982).

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Infection

Rapid elimination of Trichinella spiralis worms (1/12) (Bell, 1992)

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Bell R. G. (1992) Variation in responsiveness to Trichinella-spiralis infection in inbred rat strains. Parasitology 105, 125-130.

Cohen S. B. and Weetman A. P. (1988) The effect of iodine depletion and supplementation in the Buffalo strain rat. J. Endocrinol. Invest. 11, 625-627.

Cremer M. A., Terato K., Watson W. C., Griffiths M. M., Townes A. S., and Kang A. H. (1992) Collagen-induced arthritis in rats - examination of the epitope specificities of circulating and cartilage-bound antibodies produced by outbred and inbred rats using cyanogen bromide-derived peptides purified from heterologous and homologous type-II collagens. J. Immunol. 149, 1045-1053.

Hajdu A. and Rona G. (1969) Spontaneous thyroiditis in laboratory rats. Experientia 25, 1325-1327.

Hansen C. T., Judge F. J., and Whitney R. A. (1973) Catalogue of NIH Rodents. DREW Publ. No. 74-606. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Jones R. E., Bourdette D., Offner H., and Vandenbark A. A. (1992) The synthetic 87-99-peptide of myelin basic-protein is encephalitogenic in Buffalo rats. J. Neuroimmunol. 37, 203-212.

Kasai N., Kamimura A., Miyoshi I., and Ariga T. (1993) Ganglioside distribution in the liver of inbred strains of rats and the cancerous liver of LEC rats. Journal of Biochemistry 113, 251-257.

Klassen J., Sugisaki T., Milgrom F., and McCluskey R. T. (1971) Studies on multiple renal lesions in Heymann nephritis. Lab. Invest. 25, 577-585.

Lindsey S., Nichols C. W. Jr., and Chaikoff I. L. (1968) Naturally occurring thyroid carcinoma in the rat. Similarities to human medullary carcinoma. Arch. Pathol. 86, 353-364.

Masuda A., Fukami H., Tatematsu M., and Matsuyama M. (1992) Abnormal increase in multinuclear macrophages in primary cultures of BUF/Mna rat thymomas. Virchows Archiv B-Cell Pathology Including Molecular Pathology 62, 125-132.

Matsuyama M., Matsuyama T., Ogiu T., and Kojima A. (1988) Nodular development of spontaneous epithelial thymoma in (ACI/NMs x BUF/Mna)F1 rats. Gann 79, 1031-1038.

Morris H. P. and Wagner B. P. (1968) Induction and transplantation of rat hepatomas with different growth rate (including "minimal deviation" hepatomas). Meth. Cancer Res. 4, 125-178.

Morris H. P., Wagner B. P., and Meranze D. R. (1970) Transplantable adenocarcinomas of the rat kidney possessing different growth rates. Cancer Res. 30, 1362-1369.

Morris H. P. and Slaughter L. J. (1979) Development, growth rate, degree of malignancy and chromosome pattern of Morris transplantable hepatomas. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health 5, 433-452.

Murakumo Y., Takahashi M., Arakawa A., Saito M., Amo H., Katoh H., and Matsuyama M. (1993) Chromosomal mapping of genetic-locus associated with thymus-size enlargement in BUF/Mna rats. Jpn. J. Cancer Res. 84, 838-840.

Noble B., Yoshida T., Rose N. R., and Bigazzi P. E. (1976) Thyroid antibodies in spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis in the Buffalo rat. J. Immunol. 117, 1447-1455.

Ohgaki H., Kawachi T., Matsukura N., Morino K., Miyamoto M., and Sugimura T. (1983) Genetic cvontrol of susceptibility of rats to gastric carcinoma. Cancer Res. 43, 3663-3667.

Page J. G. and Vesell E. S. (1969) Hepatic drug metabolism in ten strains of Norway rat before and after pretreatment with phenobarbital. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 131, 256-261.

Reuber M. D. and Glover E. L. (1969) Thyroiditis in Buffalo strain rats ingesting 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene. Experientia 25, 753.

Sasamoto Y., Kotake S., Yoshikawa K., Wiggert B., Gery I., and Matsuda H. (1994) Interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein-derived peptide can induce experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis in various rat strains. Current Eye Research 13, 845-849.

Shoji R. (1977) Spontaneous occurrence of congenital malformations and mortality in prenatal inbred rats. Proc. Jpn. Acad. 53, 54-67.

Silverman D. A. and Rose N. R. (1975a) Spontaneous and methylcholanthrene-enhanced thyroiditis in BUF rats. I. The incidence and severity of the disease, and the genetics of susceptibility. J. Immunol. 114, 145-147.

Snell K. C. (1965) Spontaneous lesions of the rat, in The Pathology of Laboratory Animals (Ribelin W. E. and McCoy J. R., eds), pp. 241-302. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.

Snell K. C. (1967) Renal disease of the rat, in Pathology of Laboratory Rats and Mice (Cotchin E. and Roe F. J., eds), pp. 105-147. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.

Sugimura T., Inoue R., Ohgaki H., Ushijima T., Canzian F., and Nagao M. (1995) Genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to cancer development. Pharmacogenetics 5, S161-S165.

Symeonidis A. (1954) Tumors induced by 2-acetylaminofluorene in virgin and breeding females of five strains of rats and in their offspring. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 15, 539-549.

Tada N., Itakura K., and Aizawa M. (1974) Genetic control of the antibody response in inbred rats. J. Immunogenet. 1, 265-275.

Taguchi O., Kontani K., Ikeda H., and Matsuyama M. (1992) An intrinsic thymic epithelial abnormality is responsible for the spontaneous development of predominantly lymphocytic thymomas in BUF/Mna rats. Jpn. J. Cancer Res. 83, 1166-1171.

Tanase H., Yamori Y., Hansen C. T., and Lovenberg W. (1982) Heart size in inbred strains of rats. Part 1. Genetic determination of the development of cardiovascular enlargement in rats. Hypertension 4, 864-872.

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