Spontaneous, heritable colitis in a new substrain of C3H/HeJ mice.
OBJECTIVE
C3H/HeJ mice at the Jackson Laboratory have periodically been culled because of the occurrence of soft feces, perianal ulceration, and right-sided colitis. No pathogens have been isolated. The goal of the current study was to establish a substrain with a high incidence of this disease.


METHODS
Affected male and female C3H/HeJ mice were bred. The clinical, pathological, microbiological, and genetic features of 216 mice of the resulting pedigree were characterized.


RESULTS
A severely affected female crossed with a normal male resulted in a new substrain, denoted C3H/HeJBir, with a high incidence of right-sided colitis. Histologically, lesions occurred primarily in the cecum and proximal colon, characterized by acute and chronic inflammation, crypt abscesses, ulcerations, regenerative hyperplasia, and submucosal scarring. Such colitis peaked at 3-6 weeks; however, similar disease was found sporadically in animals more than 1 year of age. Small lesions at the anorectal junction were common throughout life. An extensive search for pathogens was negative. Genetic analysis of C3H/HeJBir mice suggested that the disease was inherited as a quantitative trait.


CONCLUSIONS
C3H/HeJBir mice develop a spontaneous, heritable form of idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease and will be a valuable resource for genetic and immunologic studies of this disease.
Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.
J P
JP
Sundberg
C O
CO
Elson
H
H
Bedigian
E H
EH
Birkenmeier
D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D002432:Cecum / Q000473:pathology; D003092:Colitis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D003106:Colon / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D010375:Pedigree