Continuous culture of novel mitochondrial cells lacking nuclei.
We isolated stable cell lines, designated as mitochondrial cells, from cybrids obtained by fusing mitochondria-less HeLa cells with platelets from patients with Leigh syndrome, a subtype of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy. The cells contain a pathogenic point mutation, T9176C, in the mitochondrial DNA. Hematoxylin-eosin staining, confocal fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry in fixed or living cells showed that the majority of these mitochondrial cells lack nuclear DNA and nuclei, but contain active mitochondria. Despite the absence of nuclear DNA, these cells can be continuously generated in culture. Therefore, it is likely that they arise from the minority of cells which possess a nucleus.
Nakano
Kazutoshi
K
Department of Pediatrics, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 8-1, Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan. knakano@ped.twmu.ac.jp
Ohsawa
Ikuroh
I
Yamagata
Kumi
K
Nakayama
Tomohiro
T
Sasaki
Kaori
K
Tarashima
Mikako
M
Saito
Kayoko
K
Osawa
Makiko
M
Ohta
Shigeo
S