title: Premature chromosome condensation: evidence for in vivo cell fusion in human malignant tumours.
abstract: Premature chromosome condensation (PCC) was studied in direct preparations of tissues from patients with haematological diseases and carcinomas of various histological types. PCC was found in 6 out of 166 malignancies (128 haematological cases, 35 carcinomas and 3 malignant effusions) analysed with the GTG-technique. Chromosome analysis revealed S-phase and G1-phase PCC in each case; the frequency of PCC varied between 1, 4 and 8.6% of the metaphases analysed. It is suggested that PCC chromosomes, which represent cell fusion in vivo, are not very rare in naturally-occurring human malignancies, and that cell fusion may affect the malignant phenotype. In conjunction with other factors they may also explain the heterogeneity of tumour cell populations.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002459:Cell Fusion; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D003078:Colchicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007621:Karyotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009857:Oncogenes; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D003078:Colchicine