BDII, Rat Strain

**Semantic type:** Mammal

**Definition:** Frequent microphthalmia. Genetic markers described for sublines of this strain in the USA differ from those in Europe, suggesting that the US sublines were contaminated at some time in the past with LEW (Czerwinski and Crowell 1986). Mean life-span of BDII/Han 33.6 +/-4.7 months in males and 22.5+/-4.4 months in females, with 91% of females developing endometrial carcinomas, but with a more varied range of tumors in males. These include 26% adrenal pheochromocytomas, 23% histiocytic sarcomas, 18% pituitary tumors and 14% hemangiomas. About 12% of aged male BDII/Han develop diverticula of the stomach (Kaspareit-Rittinghausen and Deerberg 1987). High incidence of hormone-dependent endometrial adenocarcinoma.