Multinukleæritet

Multinukleæritet, or multinucleation, is the condition in which a single cell contains two or more nuclei. This state can arise as a normal part of development or tissue function, or it can occur in response to various stimuli or disease. Multinucleated cells can form by different cellular processes and may be found in many organisms, including animals, plants, and fungi.

The two main routes to multinucleation are cell fusion and failure of cytokinesis. In cell fusion, precursor cells merge their membranes and cytoplasm to form a shared cytoplasm with multiple nuclei, as seen in skeletal muscle fibers and placental syncytiotrophoblasts. Incomplete cytokinesis or endomitosis yields a single cell with multiple nuclei after nuclear division without successful cell separation or without completing cell division. These mechanisms can produce widely varying nuclear counts and arrangements.

Common physiological examples include skeletal muscle fibers, which are multinucleated syncytia formed by fusion of myoblasts to support large cytoplasmic volume and high protein synthesis; osteoclasts, bone-resorbing cells derived from fused monocytes; and placental trophoblasts, where multinucleated syncytial layers form the interface between mother and fetus. In addition, many fungi and algae exhibit multinucleate stages or cells (coenocytic organization).

In pathology, multinucleation can be a feature of certain inflammatory and neoplastic processes, such as multinucleated giant cells in granulomas or foreign-body reactions, and in some cancers where aberrant cell division yields large, multinucleated tumor cells.

Detection and study typically rely on microscopy and nuclear staining, which reveal the number, location, and organization of nuclei within a cell.