Clonal Growth Of Mouse Cells (Strain L)

Abstract

Clones of mouse fibroblast cells (strain L) have been cultivated in a nutrient-rich, complex medium in monolayer cultures. Cell multiplication was followed by time-lapse photography or video recording. In both cases exposures were made every hour, which is sufficiently frequent to keep track of the original cell and its progeny from the 1-cell stage to 128-cell stage, or for about a week. Cell lines were followed, ‘family trees’ were constructed and individual and average generation times were calculated in all cases. The data showed that the average durations of at least 4 generations (from the fourth up to and including the seventh) were rather constant. Division synchrony deteriorated with time but could still be perceived at the end of 7 generations. As would be expected from these observations, the coefficient of variation of generation times within one single clone in our experimental system is low (about 9%), compared to previously reported values.