Tissue Catalase Activity in Several C57BL Substrains and in Other Strains of Inbred Mice

Abstract

A number of inbred strains of mice and several substrains of C57BL, including mice of both sexes, were surveyed for their liver and kidney catalase activity. Strains C3H/He, C3Hf/He, YBR/He, and BALB/cDe possessed nearly the same level of liver catalase activity. Most of the substrains of C57BL, including C57BL/6J, C57BL/10J, C57BL/6JN, C57BL/10-H-2^dN, C57BL/10ScN, and C57BL/Sp, and the related strains C57L/He, C57BR/cdLw, and C58/Lw, exhibited only approximately half the liver catalase activity of the other strains. Two C57BL substrains, C57BL/He and C57BL/An, however, had relatively high liver catalase activity, the level of which was comparable to the catalase activity of other mouse strains. Kidney catalase activity, on the other hand, was approximately the same in all C57BL substrains and somewhat higher in the other strains. Males, in general, had greater levels of liver and kidney catalase activity than females. The sex difference was absent, however, in the liver but present in the kidney in the C57BL substrains with low levels of liver catalase activity. The possibilities that the low level of liver catalase activity in most of the C57BL substrains and the related strains represents a mutation present in the stock from which these strains were derived and that the high level in the C57BL/An and C57BL/He substrains represents a reverse mutation are discussed.