Nuclear proliferation in syncytia during avian reovirus replication.

Abstract Cultured chick embryonic fibroblasts formed syncytia after infection with avian reovirus (ARV) strain 58-132. Mitotic figures were occasionally observed within the syncytia. In addition, many nuclei in the syncytia incorporated 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU), a DNA replication marker, indicating that they were in the S-phase of the cell cycle. These observations suggested that the nuclei within ARV-induced syncytia originated from nuclear endomitosis without cell division, as well as from cell fusion.