[Glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde as fixative and antimitotic agents (author's transl)]

Glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde produce a fixation effect at higher concentrations and an antimitotic one at lower concentrations. The arrested mitosis is characterized by immobilization of chromosomes in the equatorial plane, disappearance of all the spindle and astral fibers and "blocking" of centrospheres. It is a quinoline-like effect. The blocked centropheres persist at telophase or telo-prophase unlike the normal ones, which dissociate. This phenomenon is interpreted as a consequence of the storage of precursor material of microtubules in a more or less structural form around the centriole.