The nuclei present in the trinucleated MDOK cell featured in this digital video are considerably larger than the nuclei contained in other cells in the field of view. The nucleoli in the cell are correspondingly greater in size as well. An abundance of power-generating mitochondria are located around the nuclei.

As can be observed during the high speed playback of time-lapse sequences, mitochondria are quite flexible and seem to alter their shape and move about in animal cells almost constantly. The movements of the organelles are thought to be linked to the microtubules present in the cells. Mitochondria may organize themselves into lengthy traveling chains, relatively stable groups, or other formations based upon the particular needs of the cell and the characteristics of its microtubular network.

Migrating animal cells generally move through cycles of lamellipodial activity. Note, however, that the ruffling characteristic along the margins of actively locomoting cells is absent among the featured MDOK epithelial cells. This is because overlapping margins of neighboring cells do not generally produce surface protrusions, and the cells in the field of view appear tightly packed in the center of a larger colony so that none of the cells possess edges that are not in contact with other cells.

The small pieces of material that occasionally flow across the field of view are cell fragments. The debris was likely produced when an actively migrating cell failed to release all of its adhesions to the substratum or by the break down of dead cells. The cytoplasmic fragments are carried across the surface of the imaging chamber by currents in the culture medium because they lack the strong attachments formed by intact cells and the substratum. Without such junctions, the MDOK cells would be swept away from the surface in a manner similar to that experienced by the cell debris.