Nucleation capacity and presence of centrioles define a distinct category of centrosome abnormalities that induces multipolar mitoses in cancer cells.

ABSTRACT: Analysis of centrosome number and structure has become one means of assessing the potential for aberrant chromosome segregation and aneuploidy in tumor cells. Centrosome amplification directly causes multipolar catastrophic mitoses in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) deficient for the tumor suppressor genes Brca1 or Trp53. We observed supernumerary centrosomes in cell lines established from aneuploid, but not from diploid, colorectal carcinomas; however, multipolar mitoses were never observed. This discrepancy prompted us to thoroughly characterize the centrosome abnormalities in these and other cancer cell lines with respect to both structure and function. The most striking result was that supernumerary centrosomes in aneuploid colorectal cancer cell lines were unable to nucleate microt

SUBMITTER: Difilippantonio MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4322947 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature