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Max Planck researchers show that stem cells unlike cancer cells dispose of their midbody

It is like a silken thread – the midbody. This transient structure is formed during cell division and it is the very last connecting point between the two daughter cells. But what happens after cell division with the midbody? Is it inherited to one of the two nascent cells? Or released into the extracellular fluid? Scientists of the Huttner Lab at the MPI-CBG now showed that there is a link between midbody-release and the ability of cells to differentiate: The extent of midbody-release is significantly greater in stem cells than cancer-derived cells. (Nature Communications, 18. Oktober 2011)

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