Action of nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions of liver homogenate on liver growth in the chick embryo.

A number of observations have been made during a study of the regulation of organ growth which lead to the conclusion that there is a certain correlation between the density of cell packing and mitotic activity in the tissue (Tumanishvili, 1964, 1965a, b; Tumanishvili & Tabidze, 1962, 1963). The density of cell packing is expressed as the concentration of nuclei (CN), reflecting not only the number of cells in a given tissue volume, but an aspect of interrelation of nuclei and cytoplasm as well. Observations have shown that an increase in mitotic activity always leads to an increase in the concentration of nuclei, and a decrease to a decrease. At the same time an increase in the concentration of nuclei appears to cause suppression of mitotic activity, while a decrease of the nuclear concentration to cause vigorous cell division. Thus mitotic activity and nculear concentration form a typical circuit with a negative feed-back mechanism