Constancy of cell buoyant density for cultured murine cells

The relationship between cell cycle and cell density was determined for three different lines of mouse cells by equilibrium centrifugation of suspension cultures. The mean cell densities of the three lines differed significantly, with values of 1.0622, 1.0678, 1.0540 gm/ml for 70Z/3, S 107, and ABE 8, respectively. However, the density distributions within each of the three lines were indistinguishable, with an average coefficient of variation about 5% of the mean reduced density (i.e., density minus one). Quantitative DNA analysis of the cells separated by density showed that the proportion of cells in G1, S, and G2 + M phase of the cell cycle changed very little or not at all with cell density. In addition, cells separated by size (and therefore by phase of the cell cycle) using velocity sedimentation had the same means and distributions of densities. These results indicate that there is little or no change in cell density as the cells traverse the life cycle and that buoyant density appears to be a constant property of a cell type.