Effect of Colchicine and Related Substances on the Morphology of Peritoneal Mast Cells

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Abstract
Mast cells of the rat peritoneal fluid alter their morphology specifically and characteristically in response to subcutaneous injection of colchicine and some colchicine derivatives; certain other derivatives, metabolic poisons, mast-cell metabolites, and alkaloids do not elicit this response. Similar morphological changes are observed in other types of nondividing cells. Not only are mitotic figures not demonstrable in mast cells after the injection of a variety of antimitotic substances, but the effects observed involve nondividing cells, which demonstrate potent, yet unstressed, paramitotic effects of colchicine at the cellular level. The mast-cell response reflects the effectiveness of the same active colchicines in a number of cytostatic and carcinostatic systems. The relation of the mast-cell response to colchicine is discussed in reference to sol-gel phenomena and contrasted with changes seen in hypophysectomized or in old rats.