Centrosome multiplication accompanies a transient clustering of polyploid cells during tissue repair

Cells from different human wounds were analyzed concerning their degree of ploidy. The experiments showed an increased tetraploidization rate in well-healing wounds especially during inflammation and proliferation. Recent data described a polyploidization in different tissues, which is accompanied and maybe caused by the multiplication of the centrosome. We show here for the first time that cells from nonmalignant tissue, namely human wound cells, are characterized by an extensive centrosome multiplication. In an effort to identify a certain mechanism, by which the centrosome may act as a modulator of the cells' ploidy, we focused our interest on p53, whose interaction with the centrosome was recently described. Applying a wound model onto p53-wildtype (wt) and p53-knockout (ko) mice, we could show that polyploidization was not reversible in p53-ko mice during wound healing. The lack of p53, the centrosome multiplication, and the polyploidization therefore may contribute to the physiological process of tissue repair in physiologically "normal" tissue.