Characterization of the cell cycle and synchrony in a CV-1 cell line

Growth during the cell cycle

During the cell cycle, major bulk parameters such as volume, dry mass, total protein, and total RNA double and such growth is a fundamental property of the cell cycle. The patterns of growth in volume and total protein or RNA provide an "envelope" that contains and may restrict the gear wheels. The main parameters of cell cycle growth were established in the earlier work when people moved from this field to the reductionist approaches of molecular biology, but very little is known on the patterns of metabolism. Most of the bulk properties of cells show a continuous increase during the cell cycle, although the exact pattern of this increase may vary. Since the earliest days, there have been two popular models, based on an exponential increase and linear increase. In the first, there is no sharp change in the rate of increase through the cycle but a smooth increase by a factor of two. In the second, the rate of increase stays constant through much of the cycle but it doubles sharply at a rate change point (RCP). It is thought that the exponential increase is caused by the steady growth of ribosome numbers and the linear pattern is caused by a doubling of the structural genes during the S period giving an RCP--a "gene dosage" effect. In budding yeast, there are experiments fitting both models but on balance slightly favoring "gene dosage." In fission yeast, there is no good evidence of exponential increase. All the bulk properties, except O2 consumption, appear to follow linear patterns with an RCP during the short S period. In addition, there is in wild-type cells a minor RCP in G2 where the rate increases by 70%. In mammalian cells, there is good but not extensive evidence of exponential increase. In Escherichia coli, exponential increase appears to be the pattern. There are two important points: First, some proteins do not show peaks of periodic synthesis. If they show patterns of exponential increase both they and the total protein pattern will not be cell cycle regulated. However, if the total protein pattern is not exponential, then a majority of the individual proteins will be so regulated. If this majority pattern is linear, then it can be detected from rate measurements on total protein. However, it would be much harder at the level of individual proteins where the methods are at present not sensitive enough to detect a rate change by a factor of two. At a simple level, it is only the exponential increase that is not cell cycle regulated in a synchronous culture. The existence of a "size control" is well known and the control has been studied for a long time, but it has been remarkably resistant to molecular analysis. The attainment of a critical size triggers the periodic events of the cycle such as the S period and mitosis. This control acts as a homeostatic effector that maintains a constant "average" cell size at division through successive cycles in a growing culture. It is a vital link coordinating cell growth with periodic events of the cycle. A size control is present in all the systems and appears to operate near the start of S or of mitosis when the cell has reached a critical size, but the molecular mechanism by which size is measured remains both obscure and a challenge. A simple version might be for the cell to detect a critical concentration of a gene product.

Membrane fatty acid changes during the cell cycle of CV-1 cells

Monolayers of CV-1 cells were synchronized at the G1/S boundary of the cell cycle by a 24-h 2 mM thymidine blockade. Uptake of tritiated thymidine indicated that the peak DNA synthesis occurred 6-8 h after release from the block and that cell cycle time was 18-20 h. The fatty acid composition of phospholipids extracted from cells at 0, 7, and 18 h postblockade was measured by gas chromatography. The results indicate cyclic changes in membrane fatty acids with a significant increase in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the DNA synthesis phase (S phase) of the cell cycle.

The centriolar antigen expression in TC7 cells is dependent on growth conditions and occurs at a particular time point in G1

The correlation between growth conditions and centriolar antigen (Cag) expression in TC7 cells, a subline of African green monkey kidney cells, was studied. TC7 cells became quiescent when their number reached a high cell density, or when serum factors were depleted from media containing a low concentration of fetal bovine serum (FBS). There was a stoichiometric relationship between the concentration of serum present and the number of new cells produced. During proliferation, the projected cell area decreased as a function of cell density with two abrupt transitions. The first transition appeared to be independent of cell-cell contact. However, the second transition seemed to occur mainly as a result of the limitation of the available substratum surface on which the cells could grow. The appearance of Cag in TC7 cells was found to be associated with the cells' growth conditions as well as with the particular phase in cell cycle. In an exponentially growing culture of cells with 10% FBS and in cells that were growth restricted due to a high density (above 2-3 X 10(5) cells/cm2), the incidence of cells with Cag-positive staining was about 10-20%. It increased, however, to about 40-60% at cell densities between 2 X 10(4) cells/cm2 and 1 X 10(5) cells/cm2. The frequency of cells with positive Cag staining was as high as 80% in TC7 cells that were growth restricted by depletion of serum factor(s). Thus, the quiescent states attained by the two different growth restrictions seem to be different in their ability to express Cag. The frequency of Cag could be further increased by stimulating the quiescent cell population by FBS. In mitotically selected TC7 cells, Cag staining appeared about 4 hr after mitosis and about 2-4 hr before the onset of DNA synthesis. Thus, expression of Cag in TC7 cells is related to their growth conditions, and is characteristic of a part of the G1 phase of the cell cycle.

Enhanced yields of measles virus from cultured cells

Conditions for increasing the yield of measles virus from cultured cells have been investigated. Important factors for high virus yields were found to be cell type, incubation at 33 degrees C, concentration of serum in the medium, use of virus as inoculum within five passages of plaque purification, and repeated harvesting of the virus-containing medium at 12 h intervals after extensive virus-induced cell fusion had occurred. Under these conditions, Vero cells infected with the Edmonston strain of measles virus yielded a total of 2.98 X 10(9) plaque-forming units (p.f.u.) of released virus, which is equivalent to 270 p.f.u./cell. A similar amount of cell-associated virus was produced.

Effect of simian virus 40 on the temporal and spatial organization of DNA replication in Muntjac cells

We examined the effects of simian virus 40 infection on the temporal and spatial organization of initiation sites for DNA replication in Muntjac cells by means of light microscopic DNA fiber autoradiography. Initiation at multiple sites along the DNA fiber in virus-infected confluent Muntjac cells was more nearly synchronous than in serum-deprived controls, although temporal control in the infected cells did not reach the level observed in cells incubated in serum-enriched medium. Initiation sites in virus-infected cells appeared to be spatially closer together than in either uninfected serum-deprived or uninfected serum-enriched cells. This change did not appear to be the result of the induction or repression by simian virus 40 of clusters of replication units with new and different organizations.

Cell cycle dependency of tumor promoter on murine erythroleukemic cells

The tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) affected the cell cycle of murine erythroleukemic cells. In logarithmically growing cells a transient G1 block lasting approximately 6 hr developed after the addition of TPA. To investigate this cell cycle effect of TPA, cells were synchronized either by a double thymidine block or by centrifugal elutriation and were analyzed by flow cytometry and electronic nuclear volume. Using double thymidine blocked synchronized cells or elutriated separated fractions containing cells other than G1, a transient G1 block occurred as the cells entered early G1. The G1 elutriated cell population was blocked in the G1 period by TPA before cell cycle traverse. This transient block in G1 was not observed after the next cell cycle traverse. Addition of TPA to butyric acid or dimethylsulfoxide induced-cells resulted in a transient G1 block in addition to inhibition of differentiation. TPA was more inhibiting on dimethylsulfoxide-induced cells than butyric acid-cells.