Cycle reset in a melanoma cell line caused by cooling

When cells in culture are released from G0 into cycle by diluting into fresh medium there is a delay of many hours before they re-enter the cycle and start DNA synthesis. A mouse melanoma cell line designated HP2 has been used to investigate the effects of non-standard temperatures between the time of plating and DNA synthesis. When the cells were incubated in a 5% CO2 box at 8 degrees C for periods during the G0-G1 transition there was an extra delay before the start of S, approximately equal to the time that the cells were held at 8 degrees C and independent of the time when the cold pulse was administered. When the cells were cooled to 25 degrees C the delay was longer than the time for which the cells had been kept at 25 degrees C, and this extra delay was also dependent on the point in G0-G1 when the cells were cooled, as though the cells could be reset to an earlier time by this treatment. It is suggested that a labile substance required for progression is destroyed faster than it is made at 25 degrees C but at 8 degrees C the rate of destruction is very low. Another phenomenon noted during these cooling experiments was that the peak height of the S phase profile, as measured by frequent pulse-thymidine incorporation experiments, was substantially higher for cells which had been cooled at a later stage in the G0-G1 transition, even though the overall times at 37 degrees C and at the colder temperature were identical. By varying the temperature of the cold pulse it was possible to separate the change in the peak height and the delay as separate entities.