A human immunoglobulin gene reduces the incidence of lymphomas in c-Myc-bearing transgenic mice.

Transgenic mice carrying an immunoglobulin enhancer-driven c-myc oncogene develop rapid-onset pre-B cell lymphomas. The incidence of these malignancies is greatly reduced when an additional transgene encoding the membrane-bound form (but not the secreted form) of human Ig mu is bred into the susceptible strain. This suppressive effect correlates with a subtle alteration in B-cell development induced by the immunoglobulin transgene.