A preparative method for obtaining enucleated mammalian cells

Mouse L cells can be enucleated in suspension by centrifugation in discontinuous Ficoll density gradients while in the presence of Cytochalasin B. Greater than 50% of the cytoplasts thus obtained attach to glass or plastic and undergo morphologic recovery within 2–4 hours of replating. Protein synthesis in cytoplasts undergoes a biphasic decay from an initial rate of approximately 50% of control nucleated cells. This method can yield up to 5 × 108 cytoplasts with consistently low levels of contamination by nucleated cells (less than 0.2%), and is well suited for obtaining quantitative amounts of cytoplasts or karyoplasts for physiologic or biochemical studies.