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Duration of Cell Cycle and Its Phases Measured in Synchronized Cells of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Rat Trachea¹

Department of Pathology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794

Synchronization of tumor cells can facilitate measurement of cycle time and permit identification of subpopulations which deviate from the average in either total cycle time or duration of specific phases. We utilized exposure to high concentrations of thymidine to arrest cycling cells in tumor fragments in culture. Pieces of six squamous cell carcinomas, induced in heterotopically transplanted rat tracheas by exposure to benzo(a)pyrene, were placed in culture and subjected to two sequential thymidine blocks. The labeling indices in cultures studied at 2 and 8 hr after release from the second block were equal to the growth fractions. By 16 hr after release from the block, no DNA synthesis was observed in any culture. In three tumors for which cycle and cycle phase duration was measured, mitosis occurred synchronously 12 hr after release from the thymidine block, and a second period of DNA synthesis began 16 hr later. T_C was 28 hr, T_S averaged 9 hr, T_G1 averaged 15 hr, and T_G2 averaged 3 hr, allowing 1 hr for T_m. These numbers correspond to the values for normal cells participating in wound healing in this epithelium. There were also no deviant populations present. The cycle and its phases therefore cannot serve as markers for cancer in this tissue, but the degree of synchrony achieved will permit correlative studies of phase-specific cell properties which have been suggested as candidates for markers of cancer.

¹ Supported by Contract NO 1 CP 33361, National Cancer Institute.

Received 1/ 2/79. Accepted 8/26/80.