Historical control background incidence of spontaneous pituitary gland lesions of Han-Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats and CD-1 mice used in 104-week carcinogenicity studies

The aim of this study was to determine the range and incidences of spontaneous microscopic lesions of the pituitary gland in control Han-Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats and CD-1 mice from 104-week carcinogenicity studies carried out between 1998 and 2010 at Charles River Edinburgh. In both strains of rats and in CD-1 mice, non-proliferative lesions of the pituitary gland were generally uncommon, excluding cysts/pseudocysts (6.42% in Han-Wistar rats, 5.85% in Sprague-Dawley rats, and 2.08% in CD-1 mice). Primary proliferative lesions were most frequently found in the pars distalis of the pituitary gland. Adenomas and carcinomas of the pars distalis were more common in Sprague-Dawley rats (49.33% and 2.85%, respectively) than in Han-Wistar rats (27.29% and 0.21%, respectively), and adenomas in both strains of rats and CD-1 mice exhibited a marked sex predisposition, with females more commonly affected.