[Effect of colchamine on the morphology of transformed fibroblast-like cells in culture].

Colcemid-induced changes in the morphology of cultured transformed fibroblast-like mouse cells were studied using scanning electron microscope. Colcemid interferes with the normal cell polarization so that all the cell edges became active. Colcemid-treated normal cells remained well spread over the substrate. Transformed cells lost their polarization after colcemid treatment--the long, narrow, poorly attached processes of different form appeared along all the cell periphery. As in the case of the absence of colcemid, transformed cells remained less spread and worse attached to the substrate than normal ones. It is suggests that a) the same colcemid-sensitive structures are responsible for the polarization of transformed and normal cells; b) morphological differences between transformed and normal cells are determined mainly by structures different from colcemide-sensitive ones.