Mitosis of bi- and multinucleate HeLa cells

Abstract

Mitosis of 10 uninucleate, 20 binucleate, 3 trinucleate and 1 pentanucleate HeLa cell were studied by means of microcinematography of living material. Bi- and multinucleate HeLa cells were also studied in fixed and stained material. When the 20 cases of mitosis of binucleate cells were grouped according to the number and nuclearity of daughter cells, 8 different groups were found. The number of nuclei produced in most cases was 3 or 4, but also examples of 2 or 5 were found. The number of cells produced was in 12 cases 3, in 6 cases 6 and 2 cases 2. In 11 of the 20 experiments at least 1 daughter cell had more than 1 nucleus. The bi- and multinucleate daughter cells apparently were produced by fusion short time after cytokinesis. A similar way of producing bi- or multinucleate cells could be seen in 3 of the 4 experiments on multinucleate cells. Metaphase, telophase and to some extent prophase were on an average of longer duration in bi- and multinucleate cells than in uninucleate cells. A great variation in metaphase duration was, however, found. It was shown that nuclei in a bi- and multinucleate cell as a rule entered prophase and metaphase simultaneously. However, exceptions from a synchronous entering of prophase were found.