Association of elevated mutagenesis in the spleen with genetic susceptibility to induced plasmacytoma development in mice.

Using the phage lambdaLIZ-based transgenic in vivo mutagenesis assay, mean mutant rates were determined in the spleen of mice exposed to sustained oxidative stress and were found to be increased approximately 3-fold in plasmacytoma-susceptible BALB/c and C.D2-Idh1-Pep3 mice, but not in plasmacytoma-resistant DBA/2N mice. This finding suggests a correlation between the genetic susceptibility to inflammation-induced peritoneal plasmacytomagenesis and the phenotype of increased mutagenesis in lymphoid tissues, raising the possibility that plasmacytoma resistance genes may inhibit tumor development by minimizing oxidative mutagenesis in B cells.