Kinetics of Cell Death and Disintegration in Human Lymphocyte Cultures

In order to quantitate lymphocyte proliferative responses, we explored the role of cell death in the kinetics of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated cultures. Unless the disintegration time (tDIS) of nonviable lymphocytes in culture is known, the rate of cell death cannot be calculated. To obtain tDIS, we...

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Veröffentlicht in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1977-06, Vol.74 (6), p.2536-2540
Hauptverfasser: Bernheim, Jan L., Mendelsohn, John, Kelley, Michael F., Dorian, Randel
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:In order to quantitate lymphocyte proliferative responses, we explored the role of cell death in the kinetics of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated cultures. Unless the disintegration time (tDIS) of nonviable lymphocytes in culture is known, the rate of cell death cannot be calculated. To obtain tDIS, we determined the time interval between total and viable cell population decay after various killing events. Two subpopulations of lymphocytes were observed, the major (80%) with a mean (± SEM) tDISof 16 ± 2 hr and the minor (20%) with a tDISof 45 ± 7 hr. Kinetic balance sheets were constructed predicting total culture DNA content (cells plus medium), as calculated both from proliferation rates and from observed death and disintegration rates. In an experiment characterized by extensive cell death, the two tallies were well-matched when the above data were utilized. The large discrepancy between predicted and observed DNA contents of the medium indicates that the DNA of disintegrated lymphocytes is extensively degraded. We conclude that cell death explains proliferation deficits in stimulated lymphocyte cultures. Our approach to quantitation of cell death may have general applicability to kinetic studies of cultured cells.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.74.6.2536