Female protein, amyloidosis, and hormonal carcinogenesis in Turkish hamster: differences from Syrian hamster

The Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) has been widely used as an experimental animal and is a unique model for three sex hormone-regulated events: 1) estrogen-initiated renal carcinogenesis, 2) sex-limited expression of amyloidosis, a ubiquitous disease, and 3) sex hormone control of a serum amyloid P component (SAP) called female protein (FP). In this study, we evaluated the closely related Turkish hamster (Mesocricetus brandti) for these three events and found some very different responses: 1) estrogen-initiated renal carcinogenesis was not found in Turkish hamster, 2) amyloidosis was not sex limited and actually was a rare disease in the Turkish hamster, and 3) Turkish hamsters did express a sex-limited SAP-FP in serum that was antigenically identical and structurally very similar (97.5%) to Syrian hamster SAP-FP. However, acute phase regulation of SAP-FP synthesis was different, and serum levels of this pentraxin were much lower than those found in the Syrian hamster. On the other hand, in contrast to findings in the Syrian hamster, hepatic tumors were relatively common in normal and especially in estrogen-treated Turkish hamsters. Therefore, although they are closely related, these two Mesocricetus hamster species have markedly dissimilar responses to sex hormones.