C-anaphases (common variant) are unrelated to colchicine and phytohemagglutinin.

We evaluated the effect of different concentrations of colchicine (0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 microgram/ml) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA) (0.10, 0.15, 0.20 microgram/ml) on the rate of C-anaphases in lymphocyte cultures from five healthy individuals with the common variant of C-anaphases. For each of the 12 possible combinations, two subjects were randomly tested. The frequency of these variant figures was < 3%; a single-culture (out of six with the colchicine concentration of 0.1 microgram/ml) lacked C-anaphases. Multiple variance and Student's t tests revealed, as the only significant difference, a decrease with the colchicine concentration of 0.3 microgram/ml compared with the cultures without colchicine (p < 0.05), which exhibited the greatest ratio of C-anaphases. The PHA had no influence on the frequency of C-anaphases. We conclude that the common variant of C-anaphases is unrelated to the colchicine and PHA concentrations tested; moreover, our data confirm the occurrence of such a mitotic variant in colchicine-free cultures.