Toxic milk, a new mutation affecting cooper metabolism in the mouse.

Toxic milk, tx, a new autosomal recessive mutation in mice is described. Litters produced by mutant females display a syndrome including poor growth, hypopigmentation, tremors, and ultimately death at two weeks of age. These features, consistent with copper deficiency, are attributed to failure in gestational hepatic copper accumulation exacerbated by subsistence on milk with greatly reduced copper content. Such infants can be rescued by foster-nursing on normal dams or by administered of supplemental cooper. Mutants themselves amass extraordinarily large concentrations of hepatic copper that ultimately leads to liver disease. Erroneous hepatic copper metabolism is further evidenced by reduced ceruloplasmin activity.