Responses of mouse spleen morphology to the growth of subcutaneously injected virally transformed cells.

The changes in the fractional volume of six structural components in the spleens of Balb/C mice injected with Herpes simplex virus Type 2-transformed cells (H238 tumor cells) were quantitated during progressive tumor growth. Spleen stereology was performed at three time intervals during the early stages of tumor development. The results revealed that the volume of the compact myeloid tissue and reaction center of lymphoid nodules increased about four- to five-fold from 10 to 33 days after H238 tumor cell injection. A progressive increase was also seen in the red pulp volume. Although an increase in volume of the marginal zones around the lymphoid nodules was evident early during the test period, by day 33 the mean value was similar to the control value. These results indicate that the spleen undergoes significant morphological changes in three splenic components during progressive growth of a tumor produced by subcutaneous injection of a virally-transformed cell line.