A NEW METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF CELL CYCLE PHASES

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Abstract
A method by which all cell locations of cell renewal systems in an anatomical structure may be mapped. Its use is demonstrated on the rat incisor inner enamel epithelium, which forms a 1 cell thick column in the sagittally sectioned tooth. Cells born in the apical part of the columns migrate toward the distal end of the tooth, where they mature. As the cells migrate along the column, they traverse the various cell cycle phases. The probability of a cell being in a given phase was estimated, all cells touching the basement membrane were numbered, and the number of cells separating any 2 cells was a measure of distance. Since all cells generally move in the same direction (lateral cell migration may occur), the problem is solved with the aid of functions describing the renewal counting stochastic process in which cell distance serves as an independent variable. The method predicts labeled cell and mitotic rates which agree with those estimated in the usual way and estimates the fraction of cells in G2 phase.