ChromosomesIMAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE (IHM), SPOONER
Researchers at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a role for pockets of extra-nuclear chromosomes that are often found in cancer cells, according to a study published in Nature last week (January 18). Chromosomes encased by their own membrane in the cytoplasm have a higher rate of breakage and rearrangement during cell division, potentially feeding the cancer conversion.
These so-called micronuclei have been something of a puzzle to researchers, who were unsure if the tiny organelles were a product of the genetically unstable cancer cell, or a factor contributing to cancer formation. So the study’s researchers stained the micronuclei and followed them through the cell-replication cycles. While the nucleic chromosomes replicated normally, micronuclei continued the replication process long after the cell had divided. Because ...
