Heterotransplantation of Human Pseudomyxoma Peritonei into Mice and Rats*

The problem of the absorption of grafted tissue is of theoretical as well as practical significance. As regards transplantation for clinical purposes, much thought has been given to the human ovary. According to Zondek and Wolff, both homotransplants and heterotransplants of fresh or preserved ovarian tissue of human origin are rapidly absorbed after implantation in man and the lower animals, and this process is accompanied by a simultaneous reduction of the hormonal effect on the organism of the host (Zondek). Examination of the site of transplantation and the hormonal reactions of the patients has revealed that ovarian transplants in women are completely absorbed in the course of one year (Zondek). It seemed worthwhile, therefore, to find out whether ovarian tumors of human origin transferred to a foreign species behaved in the same way as normal ovary; i.e., whether they were subject to absorption with the same degree of rapidity. To study this problem we implanted in animals a particularly active type of ovarian tissue, derived from a pseudomucinous cystadenoma ovarii. In the literature we find reported a certain number of successful transplantations of malignant tumors from one species into another. But where these have been achieved in related animals, as for instance mice and rats (Roffo, Gheorghiu, Putnoky), hares and rabbits (Coca), chickens and pigeons or ducks (Murphy and Sturm), dogs and foxes (Sticker), frogs and other poikylothermic animals (Luck~ and Schlumberger), they might be easily explained by the coincidence of two factors: the growth tendency of the inoculated material and the comparatively close relationship between the two species. It is much more difficult to judge the outcome when heterotransplantation between far distant species is concerned; e.g., man and the lower animals. Here two factors must be held responsible for the fate of the graft: the nature of the host tissue and the nature of the transplanted tissue.