[Rapid method for the intravital assessment of proliferative activity in monolayer cultures]

A simple and quick method is proposed for measuring the mitotic activity in monolayer cell cultures. The method is based on counts of mitotic figures in several microscopic fields without fixing and staining the cells. The counting procedure takes little time, and culture dishes (or flasks) may be then used for other experiments. The proliferation activity of Swiss 3T3 cells was estimated by this technique and compared with the results provided by the flow cytofluorimetric analysis.