Submitted by North_Recognition199 t3_117u4fx in askscience
Comments
Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat t1_j9g7xqt wrote
In other cases, are multinucleated cells usually cancer?
Ech_01 t1_j9gkjml wrote
Yes. Cells may become multinucleated cells if something goes wrong during the cell division/fusion which is possible when cancerous cells divide way too often unregulatedly.
Rough_Drop673 t1_j9hb82h wrote
Yes, if the cells morphology is different than the normal cell, and it’s not specific just to the nucleus, can be shape or size as well or behaviour
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SignalDifficult5061 t1_j9gtcui wrote
The technical term is syncytium.
Some other people mentioned a couple of things, but the placenta is particularly interesting because there is evidence that is arose as a result of co-option of a viral gene.
Some modern viruses cause syncytium formation in host cells as part of their life cycle.
i_love_rettardit t1_j9n952h wrote
> Some modern viruses cause syncytium formation in host cells as part of their life cycle.
i.e. in the news we hear of flu, covid, and RSV
RSV = respiratory syncytial virus
The virus that spread simply by causing neighboring cells to merge.
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dragonlhama t1_j9fyvz9 wrote
Yes.
Muscle cells have several nuclei.
Hepatocytes (liver cells) have usually one single nucleus, but, occasionally, we observe some of them with two nuclei in normal conditions.
When fighting some kinds of pathogens, usually large ones, such as helminth parasites, the "multinucleated giant cells" are formed, which are kind of a macrophage megazord.