Surface topography and other characteristics of non-transformed and carcinogen transformed C3H/10T 1/2 cells in mitosis, as revealed by quantitative scanning electron microscopy.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used for the characterization of the different phases of mitosis in normal and transformed C3H/10T 1/2 cells after the stages had been confirmed by light microscopy. Our findings suggest that it is only possible to separate the different phases of mitosis by SEM after having evaluated a great number of cells and after having established the SEM features for the light microscopically identified mitotic phases (Feulgen staining). The main finding in the study is that both the normal and all three types of transformed cells, type I, II and III, have the same shape in the different stages of mitosis but that transformed cells seem to exhibit a larger number of pleomorphic microvilli than do non-transformed cells. We also found that in contrast to the other mitotic phases, prophase cells have a very low concentration of microvilli in the nuclear area.