Malignant Cell Populations and the Stemline Concept

Abstract

Since the 1950’s a great amount of information has been accumulating concerning the cytology of transplanted tumours, many of which were converted into the ascites form. These studies revealed that most experimental tumours were composed of cells differing from normal tissue cells in respect of chromosome number and frequently chromosome structure. The patterns of variation most commonly encountered in the cell populations of tumours are well illustrated by three ascites tumours of mice used by the author. Due to the relatively low chromosome number (2N = 40) and the uniform shape of the chromosomes in mouse cells, murine tumours provide excellent material for cytological analyses.