Autoradiographic Evidence for the Occurrence of Cell Fusion in Cultures of Theileria-Infected Bovine Lymphoid Cells

Abstract

Theileria parva-infected bovine lymphoid cells, grown in tissue culture, were labelled with tritiated thymidine. Aliquots of this culture were added to equal volumes of unlabelled cultures of T. parva and T. lawrencei. Smears were prepared from the pure and mixed cultures and examined by autoradiography. Virtually all the cells in the pure labelled cultures had taken tip the tritiated thymidine, and in many cells theilerial macroschizonts were also labelled. Some of the multinucleate cells in mixed cultures appeared to be the product of cell fusion since they contained both labelled and unlabelled nuclei.