Cell kinetics: Mathematical models and experimental bases

This paper reviews some of the important mathematical and experimental methods used to obtain information on the movement of cells through their reproductive cycle. The growth of a cell population results in part from the progression through specific phases between birth and subsequent division. But the total growth is also controlled both by cells dying and by cells remaining indefinitely in a given phase of the cell cycle. Different experimental procedures have been used to measure the cell cycle progression of cells and different mathematical procedures have been of use in interpreting that experimental data. In this paper, some of the major experimental methods and the techniques used to describe those methods are described.