Cell kinetics and tumour formation: Cell turnover in the lungs of mice with hereditary lung tumours

Abstract
Cell turnover time varies from 1 tissue to another but is reproducible as a hereditary characteristic for a given cell line. The present study indicates that it is prolonged in the lungs of mice congenitally predisposed to developing primary lung tumors. Primary malignant tumors occur more frequently in areas of relatively slow cell replacement in the human gastrointestinal tract than in those where cell turnover is rapid. On the basis of these observations postmaturity of a cell may be a significant factor in the development of neoplastic change.