An ultrastructural study of mitotic chondrocytes in the Swarm rat chondrosarcoma

The Swarm rat chondrosarcoma is a well established model system for the biochemical studies of cartilage proteoglycans. In this study, we observed the ultrastructure of mitotic chondrocytes in this tumor to confirm whether it is also useful as a morphological model system to examine the mitosis of chondrocytes. As a result, the mitotic chondrocytes in this tumor contained fairly prominent cell organelles, and the endoplasmic reticulum was mainly vacuolized and the Golgi stacks were replaced by the cluster of small vesicles during the later stage of the mitotic cycle. Although the cytoplasmic division began at the telophase, the cytoplasmic cleavage furrow was so narrow that dividing chondrocytes looked as if they were partitioned by a slit. These findings are almost consistent with the changes that occurred in the mitotic chondrocytes of the tibial growth plate, although the degree of disorganization in the Golgi apparatus is slightly different. Therefore, this tumor is useful as a convenient morphological model system to examine the mitosis of chondrocytes because of the facility for taking specimens.