The Production of Binucleate Mammalian Cell Populations

Binucleate cells are potentially useful agents for the study of a wide variety of problems in cell biology. Questions of nuclear-cytoplasmic balance, cell cycle control, mitotic synchrony, and gene dosage effects are but a few examples of topics that can be investigated by means of binucleate cells. Another advantage of binucleate mammalian cells is the frequency with which such cells become tetraploid. The production of binucleate cells is, therefore, a stepping stone to the formation of tetraploidy, another nuclear state of potential usefulness in answering genetic and physiological questions. Binucleate mammalian cells can be induced by treatment with the fungal metabolite, cytochalasin B. Although the mechanisms for the drug's action are not clearly understood, a major consequence in mitotic cells of exposure to cytochalasin B is the inhibition of the completion of cytokinesis.