Open AccessAnalytical cytometric approaches to heterogeneous cell populations in solid tumors: A review
Author(s) -
Dethlefsen Lyle A.,
Bauer Kenneth D.,
Riley Reba M.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
cytometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1097-0320
pISSN - 0196-4763
DOI - 10.1002/cyto.990010202
Subject(s) - in vivo , acridine orange , biology , in vitro , hela , cell , cell culture , microbiology and biotechnology , suspension culture , computational biology , staining , genetics
The problems encountered in studying the heterogeneity of cells in solid tumors is reviewed with emphasis on the role of various analytical cytometric assays for studying both the biology and the dynamics of proliferating, quiescent and dead malignant cells in vitro and in vivo . Due to advances in cytometric technology, many interesting in vitro studies on tumor cell heterogeneity have been and will be conducted over the next several years. For example, the acidic acridine orange staining of HeLa cells in suspension culture does readily discriminate between proliferating and quiescent cells. Some of these assays have been and others will be extended to in vivo studies. However, it is obvious that either the current analytical cytometric techniques must be modified and refined to permit better resolution for the complex situation in vivo or other new analytical cytometric techniques will have to be developed before many interesting studies on tumor cell heterogeneity in vivo can be addressed with reasonable efficiency.