Background: The meiotic spindle plays an important role in the oocyte during chromosome alignment and separation at meiosis. The zona pellucid (ZP) is a dynamic matrix composed of filaments with the properties that might reflect the history of oocyte cytoplasmic maturation. Since, spindle and ZP in living oocytes are highly birefringent, their structures can be viewed noninvasively by using a P...

OBJECTIVE Sleep spindles (12-15 Hz oscillations) are one of the hallmarks of the electroencephalogram (EEG) during human non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep. The effect of a 40 h sleep deprivation (SD) on spindle characteristics along the antero-posterior axis was investigated. METHODS EEGs during non-REM sleep in healthy young volunteers were analyzed with a new method for instantaneous s...

The concept of a spindle matrix has long been proposed. Whether such a structure exists, however, and what its molecular and structural composition are have remained controversial. In this study, using a live-imaging approach in Drosophila syncytial embryos, we demonstrate that nuclear proteins reorganize during mitosis to form a highly dynamic, viscous spindle matrix that embeds the microtubul...

INTRODUCTION During anaphase B in mitosis, polymerization and sliding of overlapping spindle microtubules (MTs) contribute to the outward movement the spindle pole bodies (SPBs). To probe the mechanism of spindle elongation, we combine fluorescence microscopy, photobleaching, and laser microsurgery in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. RESULTS We demonstrate that a green laser cuts ...

  Background and Objective: Inflammatory pseudotumor  is a lesion composed of proliferating spindle cells with mixed inflammatory infiltrates. Some authors have proposed the name inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor as a proper descriptive term rather than the vague inflammatory pseudotumor. The aim of this study was to verify the myofibroblastic origin of spindle cells in idiopathic orbital inf...

We have used micromanipulation to study the attachment of chromosomes to the spindle and the mechanical properties of the chromosomal spindle fibers . Individual chromosomes can be displaced about the periphery of the spindle, in the plane of the metaphase plate, without altering the structure ofthe spindle or the positions of the nonmanipulated chromosomes . From mid-prometaphase through the o...

Just as the size of an organism is carefully controlled, the size of intracellular structures must also be regulated. The mitotic spindle is a supramolecular machine that generates the forces which separate sister chromatids during mitosis. Although spindles show little size variation between cells of the same type, spindle length can vary at least 10-fold between different species. Recent expe...

Mitotic spindle position defines the cell-cleavage site during cytokinesis. However, the mechanisms that control spindle positioning to generate equal-sized daughter cells remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that two mechanisms act coordinately to center the spindle during anaphase in symmetrically dividing human cells. First, the spindle is positioned directly by the microtubule-bas...

Bipolar spindle assembly requires a balance of forces where kinesin-5 produces outward pushing forces to antagonize the inward pulling forces from kinesin-14 or dynein. Accordingly, Kinesin-5 inactivation results in force imbalance leading to monopolar spindle and chromosome segregation failure. In fission yeast, force balance is restored when both kinesin-5 Cut7 and kinesin-14 Pkl1 are deleted...

1. Controversy on Spindle potential Katz l ) has recorded a slow depolarizing potential from the sensory nerve terminal of the frog IVth toe muscle during stretch, and has termed this the 'spindle potential'. Since the amplitude of the spindle potential changed almost in parallel with the muscle tension 1) and also with the rate of afferent discharges,2,3) the spindle potential was considered t...