Multinucleation in Response to Cytochalasin B: A Common Feature in Several Human Tumor Cell Lines¹

Human tumor cell lines derived from melanoma, glioblastoma, and carcinoma of the prostate, bladder, and kidney multinucleated in response to growth in cytochalasin B-supplemented medium, whereas cell lines derived from normal prostate, kidney, skin, lung, and other nonmalignant diseases remained predominantly binucleate under comparable conditions. The multinucleate cytochalasin B phenotype was dissociable from the anchorage-independent phenotype of tumor cells, suggesting that these markers of cellular transformation are under separate control. These results suggest that uncontrolled nuclear division by tumor cells may be a general marker of abnormal growth or regulation.