Proliferation of anchorage-dependent contact-inhibited cells. II: experimental results and validation of the theoretical models

This study establishes that the cellular automata models developed in an earlier article capture the essential features of the proliferation process for anchorage-dependent contact-inhibited cells. Model predictions are in excellent agreement with experimental data obtained with bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells. The models are particularly suitable for predictive purposes since they have no adjustable parameters. All model parameters can be easily obtained from a priori measurements. Our studies also show that proliferation rates are very sensitive to the spatial distributions of seed cells. The adverse effects of seeding heterogeneities become more pronounced as a cell population approaches confluency and they should be accounted for in experimental studies attempting to assess the response of cells to external stimuli.