Cells in Action: Double mitosis of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs)

Images of cells undergoing mitosis are mind-blowing, and non more beautiful than those of our Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) captured by Nanolive's 3D Cell Explorer. On the right hand side, the cell seems to enter mitosis but the chromatids don't complete segregation and the cell returns to interphase without dividing. Exiting mitosis is controlled by proteolysis and cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs). Mitosis regulatory machinery sometimes detects errors and forces a return to interphase, as seen here. This kind of research helps develop understanding of the cell cycle, which can be used in myriad applications including cancer research.