The functional wholes of cells. Nucleolar coefficients, mitoses and multinuclearity in neighbouring HEp-2 cells

Preparations of HEp-2 cell cultures seeded in concentrations of 120,000 per cm.2 and 15,000 per cm.2 and growing for 15 and 25 hours were studied with respect to local differences in the frequencies of monucleolar cells, seven types of which were distinguished by the values of nucleolar coefficient, multinuclear cells and mitotic cells in the neighbourhood of some cells. The latter exhibited the following features such as mononuclearity with NC ranging from 1 to 4, or mitosis. The observed differences are a) higher between the groups than between the levels of cells, b) higher in the distribution of cells than in the average nucleolar coefficient, c) most frequently in the neighbourhoods of mitotic and mononuclear cell with NC 4, and d) as a rule, complementarily dependent on the initial concentration of cells and the time of cultivation. The term "functional wholes" is proposed to describe those unique formations as well as the ones stated in the introductory remarks. The functional whole is a group of cells of the same type which are identical or closely similar in a variable feature.