Researchers Uncover Cell Fusion Mechanism

In a study that could shed light on disorders that occur in skeletal muscles, bone, the placenta, and other organs where fused cells are common, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and at the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have identified a protein in worms that encourages two or more normal-sized cells to fuse into a single giant cell with multiple nuclei—a normal but little understood phenomenon in biology. The study is published in the October 2 issue of the journal Developmental Cell.