Low oxygen stimulates proliferation of fibroblasts seeded as single cells

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Abstract
In standard tissue culture conditions (20% oxygen), single human dermal fibroblasts (one cell per well) do not proliferate. We now report that low oxygen tension is a potent stimulus for the proliferation and expansion of human adult and neonatal dermal fibroblasts seeded as single cells. This preferential single‐cell proliferation in low oxygen is shown to be also a feature of human lung and dermal rodent fibroblasts, but not of human fibrosarcoma and immortalized 3T3 cells, which proliferate without difficulty in standard oxygen conditions. It is suggested that single‐cell proliferation and its dramatic stimulation in low oxygen may represent a fundamental biologic process with an opportunity to better understand mammalian cell growth regulation.