SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SPONTANEOUS PNEUMONITIS IN AN INBRED STRAIN OF BEIGE AND SATIN MICE

Priscilla W. Lane ¹ and Edwin D. Murphy ¹

¹ The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine

Among mice of strain SB/Le, homozygous for the mutant genes beige (bg), satin (sa), and white-bellied agouti (A^w), 70% developed progressive pneumonitis by 6 months of age. Among backcross offspring from an outcross to C57BL/6J-A^w–J, 49% of homozygous beige and 11% of nonbeige genotypes developed pneumonitis by 6 months of age. The evidence indicates that a specific action of the beige gene increases susceptibility to progressive pneumonitis. Lymphadenopathy, including reticulum cell neoplasms and atypical lymphoproliferative lesions, was observed in high incidence in sa+/sa bg males, suggesting a closer association with satin than with beige. Beige mice show giant lysosomal granules in the leukocytes and pigment dilution closely analogous to the Chediak-Higashi syndrome in man and similar disorders in mink and cattle. Strain SB/Le provides a convenient model in a laboratory animal for study of the increased susceptibility to infection analogous to that of the Chediak-Higashi syndrome.