Studies on the variations in generation times of rat hepatoma cells in culture

Abstract

The proliferation kinetics of a cultured hepatoma cell line, HTC, was studied by time-lapse photography and autoradiography. Variability of G1 phase, S phase and intermitotic times of sister cells were compared with data on the variability of G1 phase, G2 phase, S phase and intermitotic times of unrelated cells. Evidence is presented that the variation in times spent in intermitosis by a pair of sisters is determined by the variation of G2 phase durations, while the variation in intermitotic times of unrelated cells is mainly determined by the variation of G1 phase times.