Recommend Cell Cycle to your librarian for 2008. Download form here.

Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts.

home subscribe search archive forthcoming

Email this page Print this page

Report

Enforced Adhesion of Hematopoietic Cells to Culture Dish Induces Endomitosis and Polyploidy

Xuan Huang, Wei Dai and Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz

volume 4 | issue 6

june 2005
Pages: 801-805

We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.

Cells of epithelial or endothelial lineage when forced to grow in suspension undergo the detachment-induced death termed “anoikis”. In the present study we explored the reverse situation namely the effect of enforcement of hematopoietic lineage cells that are normally maintained in suspension to grow attached. Towards this end murine L1210 or human HL-60 and Jurkat leukemia cells were cultured in slide chambers coated with poly-L- or poly-D- lysine, or with compound 48/80, the polycations attracting them electrostatically. Within minutes after the transfer L1210 cells strongly adhered to bottom surface of the dish and shortly thereafter binuclear- , and later on, polynuclear- cells become apparent. The frequency of nuclei per cell was increasing with time and polykaryons with up to 16 nuclei and high DNA ploidy (DI =16.0) were apparent after 48 h. After 4 days the size (volume) of some polykaryons exceeded by over 340-fold the volume of mononuclear cells. The presence of mitotic figures and abnormal mitotic spindles in adhering polykaryons provided evidence of the impeded cytokinesis that led to endomitosis. Most polykaryons excluded trypan blue, had balanced growth (unchanged protein/DNA ratio compared to monokaryons), and showed no evidence of apoptosis. Individual nuclei within each polykaryon replicated DNA in synchrony. The strong cell attachment and aborted cytokinesis were cell line specific since no significant endomitosis was observed in Jurkat- or HL-60- cells which did not strongly attach to polycation-coated surfaces. Defective cytokinesis and induction of polyploidy by this mechanism, if occurs in vivo (e.g. mediated by integrins), may lead to aneuploidy and therefore have tumorigenic consequences. The phenomenon offers novel experimental model for induction of polyploidy and provides alternative to cytocholasin B to prevent cytokinesis in the mutagenicity cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus (CBMN) assay.



We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.