A rapid procedure for flow cytometric DNA analysis in cultures of normal and transformed epidermal cells

A simple, rapid, and highly reproducible procedure for flow cytometric DNA analysis has been adapted for studying cell cycle kinetics in epidermal cell cultures. The preparation of cell nuclei and their staining with the fluorescent dye propidium iodide were performed directly on the culture dish, without prior suspension and fixation of the cells. Singly dispersed nuclei were produced by mild trypsinization of cells in the presence of the nonionic detergent Nonidet P-40 and spermine. The culture dishes could be kept frozen for prolonged periods of time before trypsinization and staining, without affecting either the recovery of nuclei or the cell cycle distribution profiles. This remarkable stability of cell nuclei greatly simplified the analysis of multiple samples in cell cycle kinetic studies. This method was used to analyze the cell cycle distribution in cultures of normal and transformed mouse epidermal cells, human colon carcinoma cells, primary bovine aortic endothelial cells, and fibroblastic and myogenic cell lines. This procedure should be very useful in studying growth kinetics, differentiation, and transformation of epidermal as well as other adherent cell types.