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Electron microscope study of the myofibril partial disintegration and recovery in the mitotically dividing cardiac muscle cells

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Summary

The ultrastructure of the myocyte at all phases of mitosis as well as of early postmitotic cells has been studied in the myocardia of 14- and 18-day rat embryos and 5- and 7-day old rats. The myofibrils remain unchanged up to the late prophase. In prometaphase the majority of Z-disks in embryo myocyte myofibrils and considerable part of these disks in myofibrils of suckling rats are drastically disintegrated.

This is followed by a progressive isolation and scattering of the myofilament bundles and of the whole sarcomeres during the subsequent phases of mitosis. Thick myofilaments seem to be unchanged but thin ones become frequently poorly outlined (mainly in embryos). The sarcoplasmic reticulum, including its typically differentiated subsarcolemmal cisternae, exhibits relatively few changes during mitosis. In the early postmitotic period there is a gradual restoration of contrast-rich Z-bands, interconnecting the previously isolated sarcomeres. Patterns of this process have much in common with early stages of myofibrillogenesis (appearance of subsarcolemmal “Z-bodies”, formation of skeins of thin filaments etc.). The cleavage furrow formation is either absent or considerably retarded up to the postmitotic period.

Behaviour of some other organelles during myocyte mitosis has been described. Possible mechanisms and significance of the observed phenomena are discussed.

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  1. Laboratory of Cell Morphology, Institute of Cytology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad, USSR

    P. P. Rumyantsev

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The author is greatly indebted to the late Professor L. N. Zhinkin for his interest in this work. The valuable technical collaboration of N. V. Seina as well as the assistance of V. M. Semenov in operating the electron microscope are gratefully acknowledged.

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Rumyantsev, P.P. Electron microscope study of the myofibril partial disintegration and recovery in the mitotically dividing cardiac muscle cells. Z.Zellforsch 129, 471–499 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00316744

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