StemBook

According to the description in Michael Festing's list of Inbred Strains of mice (see link below), BALB/c mice are particularly well known for the production of plasmacytomas on injection with mineral oil forming the basis for the production of monoclonal antibodies. The information in Festing's list does not specifcy which BALB/c substrain(s) have been examined for plasmacytoma induction. Mammary tumor incidence is normally low but infection with mammary tumor virus by fostering to MMTV+ C3H mice dramatically increases tumor number and age of onset. BALB/c mice develop other cancers later in life including reticular neoplasms, primary lung tumors, and renal tumors. Rare spontaneous myoepitheliomas arising from myoepithelial cells of various exocrine glands have been observed in both BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ substrains. BALB/cByJ has a deletion in the Qa2 subregion of the murine MHC. The mutation Hld, hippocampal layer defect, is a characteristic of BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ and is responsible for abnormal lamination of the pyramidal cell layer.