The incidence of spontaneous tumors of the central nervous system of Wistar rats.

The brains of 396 old albino rats of the breed Wistar-AF/Han-EMD were examined for spontaneous tumors of the CNS and the following tumors were diagnosed: 1 oligodendroglioma, 1 astrocytoma, 1 mixed glioma, 1 pleomorphic glioma, and 19 meningiomas. Thus the CNS tumor rate was 5.8%. In addition 6 micromeningiomas were found. Knowledge of the spontaneous tumor rate including the tumor incidence in the CNS of the animal strains used for these examinations is a necessary condition for the evaluation of the results of cancerogenicity tests. CNS tumors deserve particular attention because during recent years it was found that certain chemical compounds like for instance N-methyl-N-nitrosourea induce organ-specific tumors in the brain of rats. It is recommended, therefore, to always include the central nervous system in the autopsy and histologic examination of animals from cancerogenicity trials. For cerebral autopsy transversal sections through the different cerebral regions and histologic examination of transversal section surfaces of all tumors and suspected tumor areas are suggested.