cell nucleus

The cell nucleus is the eukaryotic cell organelle containing most of the cell's genetic information in the form of DNA. It is often referred to simply as the "nucleus", and additionally contains large amounts of RNA and proteins. The outermost part of the cell nucleus is the nuclear envelope, also known as the nuclear membrane, and consists of both an inner and an outer lipid bilayer membrane.
Skeletal muscle cells and cancer cells become multinucleated, or human red blood cells lose nuclei during differentiation, but generally one nucleus exists in each cell. Utilizing this property, a technique where cell nuclei are stained and automatically counted using image analysis has been developed. The nuclear-to-cytoplasmic (N/C) ratio is an indicator of cell cycle phase, cell differentiation and malignancy.

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