Synchrony of Long Duration in Suspension Cultures of Mammalian Cells

Abstract

SYNCHRONOUS growth of mammalian cell cultures may be induced either by reversible inhibition of DNA synthesis^1,2 or by physically separating cells in one specific phase of the division cycle^3–9 and incubating them separately. In mammalian cell cultures synchrony is usually subject to relatively rapid decay and, in general, synchronous proliferation is studied for not longer than two cell generations. Observations of longer duration revealed rapid dampening of rhythmic oscillations in cell division rate^4,10. Cultures maintaining synchronous growth during prolonged periods of time would, however, be useful for further characterization of various kinetic aspects of proliferative behaviour, in particular of the variation of generation times within a cell population.