Ultrastructural studies on hydantoin induced lymphomas in mice.

Ultrastructural studies were done on cells from original tumors and from short time cultures of mouse thymic lymphomas experimentally induced by chronic exposure to diphenyl-hydantoin. The tumors appeared in mouse strains with low (C57Bl) and high (SJL/J) susceptibility to spontaneous lymphoma development and were not observed in a resistant strain (C3Hf). Thymic lymphoma development was usually preceded by increasing lymphoreticular atrophy followed by progressive reticulohistiocytic hyperplasia, and subsequently spread to other tissues. Morphologically the tumor was characterized as a lymphoblastic lymphoma. Abnormal cell changes in the original tumors and cultured cells, and the presence of murine C-type particles in the cultured cells but not in the original tumors, are discussed in relation with the disturbance of immune system and the lymphoma enhancement produced by diphenyl-hydantoin.