Autoradiographic analysis of the cell cycle: Howard and Pelc to the present day

Although flow cytometry has become the popular way to examine the kinetics of cell proliferation, the technique of labelled mitoses remains an important and central technique. This is particularly the case when it is the durations of cell cycle phases that are required. Through simulation analysis it is possible to identify discrepancies that imply the existence either of artefacts or of unsuspected properties of the cell system under investigation: the implications of these discrepancies have often been inadequately explored. An important function of the modelling approach is to seek to identify aspects of the data that cannot be fitted, and to pursue the discrepancies either by eliminating artefacts or by seeking to describe a more comprehensive model.