Retention of Labelled Dna Precursor By Murine Cells After A Single Administration of Tritium Labelled Thymidine

Abstract. The central zone of the rat lens epithelium, extending half way from the centre to the periphery of a whole mount preparation, normally has less than 1% of the cells in the cell cycle at any given time. Mechanical wounding initiates a burst of proliferation in the central zone. DNA synthesis begins 14 hr after wounding followed by mitosis 10 hr later. When ³H]TdR was applied at 2 hr prior to S phase, some moderately heavy and some light labelling was observed after the onset of S phase. When ³H]TdR was applied 5 hr before S phase (9 hr after wounding), all the cells were lightly labelled. Only small amounts of the label were available to these cells 5 hr after application. It is significant that there was labelling in this group because it indicates the persistence of relatively small intracellular pools of ³H]TdR for several hours after the initial 'pulse' labelling of cells. Determinations of the duration of S phase were based on the assumption that pulse labelling may be affected by the persistence of the pools of ³H]TdR and consequent light labelling of the cells.