[Semi-centennial history of the nuclear matrix at the turn of the 21st century].

In 1974, Berezney and Coffey described what they called the nuclear matrix (NM), thus ignoring our priority, since we had isolated and characterized virtually the same skeletal structure 25 years before this discovery. The presence of NM in the live cell was doubted, because of unsuccessful attempts to recognize it in vivo. NM comprises the lamina, extracted nucleoli and an intranuclear fibrogranular network. The internal matrix is very labile, its presence and abundance depending on methods of isolation, whereas the isolated NM can be revealed as granules 25-30 nm in diameter. As the state of the interchromatin space changes with varying in vivo conditions, temperature and methods of isolation, doubts cast upon the very existence of NM are to be regarded as hardly valid, and new progress in its study may be expected in the XXI century.