The Laboratory of Reproductive Toxicology at the Institute of Environmental Toxicology has been maintaining a Wistar derived PD strain of rats. In 1986, 1 female and 2 males exhibiting very short and sparse vibrissae were found in a litter of 7 parented by a pd/pd female and phenotypically normal pd/+ male. In 2008, a male Wistar rat and F56 female were crossed, and obtained heterozygous rats were sib-mated. After that, sib mating between homozygous rats was started.
Genetic analysis reveal that the mutant characteristics are inherited as autosomal recessive traits and the cv gene located on 10 Mb area_D8Got1-D8Got13) near Chr 8 centromere. This mutant rat is abnormally curled appearance of the vibrissae. The cv/cv homozygous rats have a small number of short and/or curly vibrissae around the nose. The vibrissae on the cheek and/or above the eyes are also short and curled;
however, no vibrissa appears on the lower mandible. Although hair growth seems to be retarded, the outer hairs showed nearly normal length by 10 weeks of age. The outer hairs of matured cv/cv rats appear silky and translucent. The adult mutant rats often exhibit loss of hair on the head and/or back. Lactating females usually lose their abdominal hair. There is no histopathological change in the skin.