A simple method for estimation of cell cycle parameters

A simple and convenient method of estimating cell cycle parameters was proposed. The means and the standard deviations of G1, S and G2 phase durations in the cell cycle of an ascites tumor, LY-1, a sub-line of Yoshida sarcoma, were estimated by plotting the fraction of the labelled mitoses on probit paper. The frequency distribution of the duration of each phase was assumed to follow a normal distribution. When this method was compared with the Monte Carlo program where each phase duration was assumed to follow a log-normal distribution, results by the two methods were in good agreement.