STRAINS OF MICE FOR EXPERIMENTAL MURINE LEPROSY

PART 4. THE VALUE OF HYBRIDS IN EXPERIMENTAL

Abstract

As stated in the preceding reports, the C 57 BL strain was considered to be adequate for leproma inhibition experiment by drugs, while the C 3 H strain appeared to be more suitable than other strains for immunological and therapeutic experiments.
On the basis of these findings, the susceptibility to subcutaneous inoculation with murine leprosy bacilli of the hybrids from reciprocal crosses between above two inbred strains was examined for the purpose of testing whether it would be adequate for all above purposes.
Most of the hybrids showed the intermediate characters and they lost the excellence of the parental strains.
Taking these observations into consideration, the hybrids obtained by crossing females of dd or CF 1 with males of C 57 BL or C 3 H were examined for same purpose. These hybrids presented similar properties to C 57 BL or C 3 H.
The suitable strain, therefore, could not be obtained in this experiment.