Estimating the variation in S phase duration from flow cytometric histograms

A stochastic model for interpreting BrdUrd DNA FCM-derived data is proposed. The model is based on branching processes and describes the progression of the DNA distribution of BrdUrd-labelled cells through the cell cycle. With the main focus on estimating the S phase duration and its variation, the DNA replication rate is modelled by a piecewise linear function, while assuming a gamma distribution for the S phase duration. Estimation of model parameters was carried out using maximum likelihood for data from two different cell lines. The results provided quite a good fit to the data, suggesting that stochastic models may be a valuable tool for analysing this kind of data.