MYOPATHY OF HAMSTER DYSTROPHY: HISTORY AND MORPHOLOGIC ASPECTS

On April 9, 1962, F. Homburger, J . R. Baker, C. W. Nixon, and R. Whitney submitted a manuscript to Medicina Experimentalis, published by S. Karger, Basel, Switzerland, then edited by R. Domenjoz of Bonn, entitled, “Primary Generalized Polymyopathy and Cardiac Necrosis in an Inbred Line of Syrian Hamsters. ”’ This paper described in approximately 100 hamsters of a new inbred line identified as BIO 1.50 (Whitney) “a polymyopathy which does not interfere with reproduction, occurs at a high rate, relatively late in life (at about 20 days of age), and allows the afflicted animal to live some 220 days. ” It was suggested that “this myopathy may constitute a better biologic tool for study of the disease mechanism than any now available and the involvement of the heart muscle renders these hamsters interesting subjects for studies on myocardiopathies. ” On July 21, 1962, The Lancer commented editorially on our observation of the new hamster polymyopathy,2 calling it to the attention of “all who are engaged in experimental work on muscle disease in man and animals. ” We proceeded to publish the results of our genetic studies (crossing affected BIO 1 S O animals with healthy animals of unaffected lines, demonstrating the absence of the disease in the F , generation and crossing brothers and sisters within the F , generation with the result that 25% of their F , offspring exhibited the polymyopathy, concluding that the disease was transmitted by an autosomal recessive gene and proving this contention by obtaining a 100% myopathic F , generation when crossing affected siblings of F 2 ) . The Lancet commented with a second editorial on April 20, 1963,4 recognizing that “the myopathic trait should easily be maintained in vigorous, rapidly breeding heterozygous animals” and that “biochemical, histochemical and histological research on these animals may well throw light on the pathogenesis of the genetically determined myopathies in man. ” From then on, based on our initial observations and on the work of Bajusz, who joined us from Selye’s group in Montreal, in addition to the studies of Sonnenblick and his group, then at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Harvard University School of Medicine, the inbred cardiomyopathic hamster gained wide acceptance as a tool for the study of mechanisms of myopathy in general and cardiomyopathy in particular. :-19 Two conferences held by The New York Academy of Sciences centered around the cardiomyopathic hamster (November 1965 and January 1967). 20921 Three symposia were held at the Bio-Research Institute on cardiomyopathic hamsters and on other inbred hamsters (The Pathology of the Syrian Hamster. 1970; Comparative Pathology of the Heart, 1973; The Syrian Hamster in Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Research, 1977), and the proceedings were published as Volume 13 of the series Advances in Cardiology (S. Karger, Basel and New Yor! ;, 1974) and Volumes 16 and 24 of Progress in Experimental Tiinlor Research, S. Karger AG, Basel and New York, 1972 and 1978, respectively). Meeting reports on some of these conferences have appeared in the literature. ’-” The literature on the subject