Cysts of the Epididymis, Cancer of the Cervix, Granular Cell Myoblastoma, and Other Lesions After Estrogen Injection in Newborn Mice

Abstract

Male and female mice from a noninbred Swiss colony and from inbred strains BALB/c and C3Hf (without the milk agent) were given injections of diethylstilbestrol on the day of birth. When autopsies were performed from 13 to 26 months later, lesions of the epididymis were found in over half the male mice. The female mice had histologic evidence of continuous estrogen stimulation, formation of concretions in the vagina, carcinoma of the uterine cervix and vagina, and there were two cases of granular cell myoblastoma located at the uterine cervix. Two cervical cancers and one granular cell myoblastoma were successfully transplanted. One strain C3Hf female, age 26 months, that received an injection of saline alone on the day of birth had a granulosa cell tumor of the ovary, evidence of continuous estrogen stimulation, an epidermoid cancer near the vaginal orifice, and a small granular cell myoblastoma beneath the epithelium of the uterine cervix.