Autoradiographic evidence of a loss of iodination within hormone-dependent GR mouse mammary tumors as they progress to independence.

The purpose of this study was to determine by use of light- and electron-microscope autoradiography whether or not iodination occurred in mammary tumors of female GR mice. Of the sixty tumors studied it was found that pregnancy-dependent and hormone-induced tumors possessed iodinating ability. Although mammary glands from nonpregnant GR mice lacked the ability to iodinate, by the 16th day of pregnancy in response to hormonal stimulation the glands readily iodinated casein, and some epithelial cells contained ultrastructural cytochemical evidence of mammary peroxidase. Preneoplastic mammary gland lesions known as hyperplastic alveolar nodules were also able to iodinate, as were plaques, the disc-shaped lesions which give rise to the hormone-responsive mammary tumors in this strain. Plaques also contained epithelial cells with mammary peroxidase activity. When hormone-induced mammary tumors were transplanted into syngeneic mice they retained the ability to iodinate for several generations. However, as the tumors progressed to hormone independence, the ability to iodinate was gradually lost. Hormone-independent mammary tumors from GR mice lacked both iodinating ability and cytochemical evidence of mammary peroxidase. These findings suggest that iodination depends upon hormone-responsive cells within the mammary tumors and that as these cells become hormone unresponsive, the ability to iodinate is lost.