Open AccessSensitivity of flow cytometric data to variations in cell cycle parameters
Author(s) -
Ubezio P.,
Rossotti A.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
cell proliferation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-2184
pISSN - 0960-7722
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2184.1987.tb01360.x
Subject(s) - cell cycle , cycling , mitosis , biological system , phase (matter) , sensitivity (control systems) , exponential growth , exponential function , transit time , flow (mathematics) , kinetics , biology , mathematics , microbiology and biotechnology , cell , chemistry , mechanics , engineering , physics , genetics , mathematical analysis , geography , archaeology , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , electronic engineering , transport engineering
We investigated to what extent flow cytometric DNA histograms are informative of cell cycle parameters. We created a computer program to simulate cell cycle progression in a generic and flexible way. Various scenarios, characterized by different models and distributions of cell cycle phase transit times, have been analysed in order to obtain the percentages of cells in the different cell cycle phases during exponential growth and their time course after mitotic block. Cell percentages during exponential growth were insensitive to intercell variability in phase transit times and thus can be employed to estimate the relative mean phase transit times, even in the presence of non‐cycling cells. However, this information is ambiguous if re‐entry of such cells into the cycling status is permitted. The stathmokinetic outline gives the mean phase transit times, but also provides information about the spread, but not the form, of the phase transit time distributions, being particularly sensitive to the spread of G1 phase duration. The stathmokinetic outline also helps distinguish between scenarios considering only cycling cells, those forecasting a fraction of definitively non‐cycling cells and those admitting a Go status with first‐order output kinetics.