The induction of human multinucleated monocytes in culture

The formation of multinucleated giant cells in vitro has been studied using human monocyte cultures. Multinucleated monocytes appeared early in the course of the culture, indicating that they are not purely a phenomenon found only in aging cultures. In 4 of the 33 normal adults, more than 20% of multinucleated forms appeared in the cultures. Supernatants from early monocyte cultures of those subjects having a high incidence of multinucleated cells induced the formation of multinucleated cells in other cultures. This effect did not occur when supernatant from subjects with low counts of multinucleated cells were incubated with other monocyte cultures.