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1. Introduction. The purpose of this note is to announce several results concerning cellular decompositions of 3-manifolds for which the associated decomposition space is a 3-manifold.In [6], Bing raised the question of whether each point like decomposition of E z that yields a 3-manifold yields E 3 . This question leads naturally to the following one : Suppose M is a 3-manifold and G is a cellular decomposition of M such that the associated decomposition space is a 3-manifold N. Is N homeomorphic to Mf In Theorem 2 below, we give an affirmative answer to this question. Previously,The main result announced in this note is Theorem 1 below, and the other theorems stated are derived from it. Detailed proofs will appear elsewhere.Our results have applications to the problem of realizing, in the case considered here, the decomposition space as the final stage of a pseudoisotopy. T. M. Price has established such a result for cellular decompositions of S 3 that yield S 3 [il]. W. Voxman has extended these results to arbitrary 3-manifolds [12].In another paper [4], we apply the results announced here to the study of cellular decompositions of 3-manifolds with boundary, and derive a result for such manifolds analogous to Theorem 2 below. We also use these results to study shrinkability conditions satisfied by certain cellular decompositions of 3-manifolds that yield 3-manifolds [S]. Our results in this direction have been extended greatly by Voxman [13],

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