Nature 183, 555 (21 February 1959); doi:10.1038/183555a0

Inhibitory Effect of Colchicine upon the Transplantable Fibroma of the Skin in the Newt Triturus taeniatus

A. STOLK

Histological Laboratory, The Free University, Amsterdam. Dec. 20.

RECENTLY, we described a multiple fibroma of the skin in the newt Triturus taeniatus which was characterized by an enlargement of the adepidermal reticular network^1–4 and appeared to be transplantable in the same animal^3,4. The preliminary transplantation experiments were continued to establish the effect of a colchicine treatment. The material for these experiments was obtained by breeding the normal animals of the first litter in which the tumour was observed^3,4. Fragments of tumour tissue from the surroundings of small tumours, in which an enlargement of the nodular swellings of the adepidermal reticular network could already be expected, were transplanted to a perfectly tumour-free area of the same animal, preferably in the tail base region. In 105 of the 128 cases a distinct tumour developed after about 3 weeks at the location of the transplantation, whereas in the 23 negative cases the transplanted material had been almost completely resorbed. After 3 weeks in 83 of the 105 tumour cases treatment with colchicine was applied, the remaining 22 animals being used as controls. This colchicine treatment consisted in giving once a week an intraperitoneal injection of colchicine–saline solution (0.0017 mgm. colchicine). The method of preparing the solution for injection was as usual^5–7. The experiment lasted 70 days.

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