Genetics of susceptibility to pristane-induced plasmacytomas in BALB/cAn: reduced susceptibility in BALB/cJ with a brief description of pristane-induced arthritis.

BALB/cAn and BALB/cJ inbred strains of mice were separated 43 yr ago, but are still very closely related because they carry the same allelomorphs at many loci. When injected 3 times i.p. with 0.5 ml of pristane (2, 6, 10, 14 tetramethylpentadecane) 11% of strain BALB/cJ develop plasmacytomas in contrast to 61% in BALB/cAn sublines. BALB/cJ first injected with pristane as neonates also developed a reduced number of plasmacytomas as compared with BALB/cAn. About 20% of pristane-treated BALB/cAn and 70% of pristane-treated BALB/cJ develop arthritis, which first appeared in the ankle joints after a latent period of 4 mo or more.