Fully automated TV-image analysis of the cell-cycle: Comparison of the PLM method with determinations of the percentage and the DNA content of labelled cells

Abstract

A cell-cycle analysis based on a fully automated TV-image scanning system is proposed to replace the laborious PLM method. To compare the efficiency of the two procedures, cell-cycle parameters were assessed in Ehrlich (diploid and hyperdiploid), L-1210, and JB-1 mouse ascites tumours and in rat jejunal crypts. The percentages of labelled mitoses (PLM) were counted visually on Feulgen-stained autoradiographs obtained at various times after a single 3H-thymidine pulse. The fraction of labelled cells (P) and the DNA ratio of labelled and unlabelled cells were measured by TV-image analysis in the same slides and plotted against time. Within practical limits, TV-image analysis using the P-curve gives the same results as the PLM method. Using the P-curve has the important advantage that its first part, beginning at the time of 3H-thymidine injection and ending at the first maximum, furnishes more information about the cell cycle than the corresponding part of the PLM curve. It can be used to compute tG2M tS and the ratio of the growth faction index to the cell-cycle time (IP/tC) whereas the first part of the PLM-curve reveals only the length of the S-phase (tS). The IP/tC ratio is a readily accessible measure of growth and increases when the cells divide more frequently. Cell death rates may be neglected since the ratio is determined within less than the duration of one cell cycle. Moreover, the data from the first part of the P curve indicate whether there is a large non-growth fraction. If the non-growth fraction is small, i.e. if IP approximately 1, the P curve need only be measured until the first maximum is reached so that fewer samples and animals are required. If the non-growth fraction is large or unknown, the cell-cycle parameters are calculated by reference to the position and size not only of the first minimum and the first maximum, but also of the second minimum of the P curve.