Skin as a Vehicle for Horizontal Transmission of Gross Passage a Leukemia in Adult Mice. A Unique Microenvironment?

Abstract

In malignancy in vivo studies, skin is one of the frequently manipulated organs. It has been painted or injected subcutaneously with carcinogens in order to induce tumor growth. Attempts to induce immunity to tumor growth have included intradermal injection and scarification techniques. But in all these manipulations, the skin is used only as an “experimental medium” through which some other element of the oncogenic process is studied — either the tumor itself or the immune response to the challenge of the tumor. A recent discovery in my laboratory, however, has strongly suggested that the skin microenvironment itself may play a role in the oncogenic process.

Aided by grants from USPHS CA-12929 from the National Cancer Institute, Leukemia Society of America, Inc., Minnesota Medical Fdn.

Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America, Inc.