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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Isolation of Mouse Megakaryocyte Progenitors
10:30

Isolation of Mouse Megakaryocyte Progenitors

Published on: May 20, 2021

Polyploid megakaryocytes can complete cytokinesis

Younes Leysi-Derilou1, Amélie Robert, Carl Duchesne

  • 1Department of Chemical Engineering, Laval University, Québec, QC, Canada.

Cell Cycle (Georgetown, Tex.)
|July 22, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Polyploid megakaryocytes (MKs) can complete cell division, producing more polyploid cells. This successful cytokinesis, rather than just failed division, is key to megakaryocyte development and expansion.

Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Hematopoiesis
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Megakaryocytes (MKs) are essential for platelet production and undergo endomitosis, a process involving DNA replication without cell division.
  • Endomitosis typically results in polyploid MKs due to failed cytokinesis, but the precise mechanisms and outcomes are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the dynamics of polyploid megakaryocyte development and cytokinesis using live cell imaging.
  • To quantify the contribution of successful and failed cytokinesis to polyploid MK expansion.
  • To compare MK differentiation from cord blood (CB) and bone marrow (BM) sources.

Main Methods:

  • Long-term, large-field live cell imaging of human MKs derived from CD34+ cells in CB and BM cultures.
  • Evaluation of polyploid levels using cell history, cell size/ploidy correlation, and nuclei staining.
  • Direct observation and quantification of MK fates (n=4865).

Main Results:

  • A significant proportion of polyploid MKs successfully completed cytokinesis, generating polyploid daughter cells.
  • Successful cytokinesis contributed substantially to the expansion of the polyploid MK pool.
  • Proliferation rate in polyploid MKs inversely correlated with ploidy level, more pronounced in CB-derived MKs.
  • Endomitosis was the dominant fate in BM-MKs, less so in CB-MKs, explaining lower ploidy in CB-derived MKs.

Conclusions:

  • Megakaryocyte polyploidization results from both the failure and success of cytokinesis.
  • Successful cytokinesis represents a novel mechanism for polyploid MK expansion, challenging previous paradigms.
  • Differences in cytokinesis success contribute to variations in ploidy levels between CB- and BM-derived MKs.

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