background: recent results have provided increasing evidence to support involvement of membrane damage in the mechanism of ionizing radiation induced killing of mammalian cells. these findings have stimulated renewed interest in evaluating the damage to membrane as a primary initiator in radiation-induced cell killing especially in apoptotic death. the present study was aimed to gain deeper ins...

In the morphological cytology the heterochromatin is one of very useful tools for the cell identification including the differentiation and maturation stage. However, the heterochromatin condensation state was less studied although it appeared to be different in “gene rich” central and “gene poor” peripheral nuclear regions. The heavy heterochromatin condensation state in the central “gene rich...

A method for the description of spin-isospin phase transitions in nuclear matter is developed. It aliows a complete description of the pion condensation phase transition in the framework of the Landau-Migdal Fermi liquid theory. The equation of the order Parameter is derived and the condensation energy is calculated. We study the influence of pion condensation on the nuclear equation of state a...

Hallmarks of the terminal stages of apoptosis are genomic DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation. Here, we have studied the mechanism of condensation both in vitro and in vivo. We found that DNA fragmentation per se of isolated nuclei from non-apoptotic cells induced chromatin condensation that closely resembles the morphology seen in apoptotic cells, independent of ATP utilization, at ph...

Granulocytic early progenitors and terminally differentiated - mature granulocytes with segmented nuclei were studied using computer-assisted diameter and heterochromatin optical image densitometry to provide more information on the nuclear size and heterochromatin condensation state. Bone marrow smears of patients suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia untreated as well as treated with "spec...

Ultrastructural and cytochemical studies were carried out on sperm nucleus of the beetles, Coelomera lanio and Diabrotica speciosa. Nuclear development involves changes in the shape and in the degree of chromatin condensation, with specific aggregation patterns of DNA-histone complex occurring during this process. Lamellar and paracrystalline arrangements of the nuclear material were observed i...

Chromosome condensation is a major mitotic event. Fission yeast mutations in topoisomerase II and condensin subunits produce the characteristic 'cut' phenotypes, in which the septum bisects the nuclear material in the absence of normal condensation and sister chromatid separation. We show here that the same condensation defect is produced in cut15 temperature-sensitive mutants at the restrictiv...

Akt promotes cell survival by phosphorylating and inhibiting components of the intrinsic cell death machinery. Akt translocates into the nucleus upon exposure of cells to survival factors, but little is known about its functions in the nucleus. Here, we show that acinus, a nuclear factor required for apoptotic chromatin condensation, is a direct target of Akt. We demonstrate that Akt phosphoryl...