Morphological alterations of basal cells of vaginal epithelium in neonatally oestrogenized mice

Summary Neonatal oestrogen treatment results in the development of vaginal cancers in the mouse. A morphological sign which probably indicated early invasion of altered vaginal cells into the stroma through gaps in the basal lamina was first seen at 10 months of age in neonatally oestrogenized C57Black mice. Prior to this, a decrease in the numbers of cellular attachment organelles such as half desmosomes and desmosomes was observed by 3 months.This work was supported by Contract NO1-CP-55650 of National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, Public Health Service, USA, and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan.