CYTOKINETIC STUDIES OF THE REGENERATIVE PHASE IN THE JB-1 ASCITES TUMOUR

The cell kinetics of recurrent growth of the murine JB-1 ascites tumour have been investigated 0 hr and 24 hr after aspiration of the main part of the tumour in the plateau phase of growth. The experimental data: growth curve, percentage of labelled mitoses curve and continuous labelling curves combined with cytophotometric determination of single-cell DNA content were analysed using two alternative mathematical models for the cell kinetics. Investigations 24 hr after aspiration showed that the doubling time had decreased to 70 hr as compared with 240 hr in the plateau tumour. This was due to a release of non-proliferating cells into the cell cycle, resulting in an increase in the growth fraction from 44% to 72%. The decrease in the doubling time was also due to a shortening of the mean cell cycle time from 41 to 20.5 hr. The analysis rendered it likely that the aspiration caused a shift in the mode of cell loss from an age-specific elimination of old non-cycling cells with post-mitotic DNA content in the plateau tumour to an elimination of younger cells immediately after mitosis. Investigations from 0 to 10 hr after aspiration verified the release of non-proliferating cells with both G₁ and G₂ DNA content into the cell cycle. The release was initiated from 3 to 6 hr after aspiration. 24 hr after aspiration the experimental data did not indicate any further transition.