The effect of C3H mouse mammary tumour on the levels of serum and urine analytes in vivo.

A study of C3H mice implanted with mammary tumours has shown that the levels of serum total protein, alanine transaminase and alkaline phosphatase are all lower than those found in normal mice, while aspartate transaminase is higher. Serum urea values were similar to normal levels, but creatinine was lower in males and higher in females. In the male mice, urine protein and urine N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) activity were lower than in normal mice. Comparisons were made with age and sex matched controls which was found to be important for alkaline phosphatase, as this was shown to decrease with increasing age of the mice over the period from 10-30 weeks of age. The analyte values found in this study provide useful base-line data for assessing biochemical toxicity of cancer chemotherapy agents. It has been shown that some of these values can vary with age, or can be different if tumour-bearing mice are used instead of normal mice.