Roles of cell fusion, hybridization and polyploid cell formation in cancer metastasis

Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the process of cell fusion, hybrid formation and metastasis. A motile bone marrow derived cells (red) such as a macrophage or stem cell is drawn to a cancer cell (blue). The outer cell membranes of the two cells become attached. Fusion occurs with the formation of a bi-nucleated heterokaryon having a nucleus from each of the fusion partners. The heterokaryon goes through genomic hybridization creating a cancer cell-bone marrow derived cells hybrid with co-expressed epigenomes, conferring deregulated cell division and metastatic competence to the hybrid. BMDC: Bone marrow derived cell.