title: Increased susceptibility of cells to inducible apoptosis during growth from early to late log phase: an important caveat for in vitro apoptosis research.
abstract: The physiologic mode of cell death known as apoptosis has become a major focus of scientific research due to its biologic importance. Much of this research involves cells grown in culture, where induction of apoptosis is achieved through a variety of agents. We report that cell cultures in late log growth phase exhibit an increased susceptibility to apoptosis compared with cultures in early log growth phase when apoptosis is induced by sodium deoxycholate (NaDOC), anti-Fas antibody and cytosine-b-D-arabino-furanoside (Ara-C), three agents which induce apoptosis through different upstream mechanisms. We show that this phenomenon occurs in Jurkat lymphocytes, HT-29 and HCT-116 colon epithelial cells. We also present evidence that cell density alone does not affect NaDOC-induced apoptosis, but rather that the growth media plays a key role in increased susceptibility of cells in late log growth phase to NaDOC-induced apoptosis. These results indicate that growth phase is a variable that must be controlled in order to obtain reliable apoptosis data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, 85724 Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Washo-Stultz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crowley
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marek
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Gerner
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bernstein
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D002452:Cell Count; D002455:Cell Division; D003470:Culture Media; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000494:pharmacology; D003840:Deoxycholic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D019169:Jurkat Cells; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D019014:fas Receptor; D003840:Deoxycholic Acid; D003561:Cytarabine