Evidence for pentagonal symmetry in living and model cellular systems

John J. Wille

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DOI: 10.4236/ns.2011.310112                

Abstract

Microscope observations of normal human ke- ratinocytes (NHK) propagated in a serum-free medium reveal a high frequency (>70%) of pentagonally-shaped colonies over a wide range of colony sizes that persist over many sequential cell generations. NHK colonies derived from sin- gle cell isolates also display pentagonal symme- try as confirmed by a photographic technique known as “Markham Rotation”. The generality of pentagonal cellular morphology was extended to observations in situ of pentagonally-shaped basal layer epidermal cells of normal human epidermis, monolayer cultures of normal and immortalized keratinocytes, several different ch- ick embryo cells, and in previously published photographs. Statistical methods were applied that differentiate planar close-packing of polygonal configurations observed in living cellular system from several examples of non-living cellular aggregates that were produced spontaneously in nature or in the laboratory under defined physico-chemical conditions.

Keywords

Cells; Colonies; in Vitro Tissue Culture; Mammalian Tissues; Model Tissues; Pentagonal Symmetry; Rotational Symmetry Analysis

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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