CHARACTERIZATION OF A CV-1 CELL-CYCLE .5. ASSESSMENT OF VELOCITY SEDIMENTATION FOR CELL-SEPARATION AND SYNCHRONY

Velocity sedimentation at unit gravity was used to enrich populations of logarithmically growing cells in different cell cycle phases. To evaluate the degree of synchrony obtained by this method of cell separation, synchronous populations of [African green monkey kidney] CV-1 cells, initially obtained by the selective detachment of mitotic cells from roller cultures, were separated by velocity sedimentation. Although the mean cell volume increased linearly, the cells remained heterogeneous with respect to size during all phases of the cell cycle. Since velocity sedimentation depends upon discrimination of cell size, the size heterogeneity of cells throughout the cycle limits the degree of synchrony which can be obtained by this method.