DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYONIC CHICKEN THYMUS III. UNEQUAL DIVISION OF LYMPHOID CELLS

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Abstract
Cell division of thymus lymphoid cells from 11- to 17-day old embryonic chickens, as well as chickens just after hatch was investigated on cell smears stained with Giemsa. Unequally dividing cells were observed in the developmental stage of thymocytes. At the telophase of such cells, the cytoplasm of one of two future daughter cells was apparently larger in amount and was sometimes stained deeper than the cytoplasm of its counterpart. Unequal division was also observed in pro-, meta- and anaphase; sometimes a dividing cell had a large cytoplasmic process belonging to one hemisphere, suggesting that only one of the two daughter cells would receive the cytoplasmic process through cell division. The incidence of unequal division calculated by a rough estimation was around 10% of the total cell division between 11 and 13 days of embryonic development, and decreased progressively thereafter.