MORPHOLOGIC METHODS OF DETERMINING CELLULAR DOUBLING TIMES: A REVIEW

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Abstract
Indirect morphologic measurement of the rate of tissue growth involves the use of chemical substances or ionizing radiations in order to arrest mitoses so that the doubling times of the dividing cells can be determined. Colchicine is the mitotic poison most commonly used and typically produces a metaphase arrest lasting 6-8 hours in the living animal which permits counting of the number of cells entering mitosis during this interval. This method has produced much useful information. It appears to be limited in its usefulness only by the toxic side reactions of the drug and the manner in which these are synergized by other growth-arresting substances that may be under study. The use of X-radiation to produce prophase arrest in the living animal has been used to determine the mitotic time from which the length of the resting stage of the dividing cell can be determined. A recent study in plants has verified the accuracy and simplicity of this method. An attempt to use somatic death as a means of extending the principles of this method to the study of tissues uninjured by either radiations or chemicals proved an interesting failure, in that mitoses in normal tissues were relatively quickly autolyzed while the mitoses of malignant tissues remained relatively unchanged in number and appearance.

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