hepatocytes - why polyploid/binucleate?

[Dennis Goode]

On Mon, 25 Mar 1996 09:54:57 -0500

> Can anybody explain to me why hepatocytes are frequently polyploid or
> binucleate?  What is the advantage?  TIA.
> 
> Tom Phillips (tphillips at biosci.mbp.missouri.edu)
> 
Tom:

Sometimes binucleate or polyploid cells occur because a highly 
differentiated cell has difficulty physically dividing its highly 
structured cytoplasm. This is something I saw in cardiac muscle cells
(Goode, D., Cytobiologie 11: 203-229)
and may be allowed in the last division because it causes no great 
problems and therefore is not a significant disadvantage to be 
selected against.

-Dennis