title: Gompertzian growth pattern correlated with phenotypic organization of colon carcinoma, malignant glioma and non-small cell lung carcinoma cell lines.
abstract: In the current study we present a Gompertzian model for cell growth as a function of cell phenotype using six human tumour cell lines (A-549, NCI-H596, NCI-H520, HT-29, SW-620 and U-251). Monolayer cells in exponential growth at various densities were quantified over a week by sulforhodamine B staining assay to produce cell-growth curves. A Gompertz equation was fitted to experimental data to obtain, for each cell line, three empirical growth parameters (initial cell density, cell-growth rate and carrying capacity - the maximal cell density). A cell-shape parameter named deformation coefficient D (a morphological relationship among spreading and confluent cells) was established and compared by regression analysis with the relative growth rate parameter K described by the Gompertz equation. We have found that coefficient D is directly proportional to the growth parameter K. The fit curve significantly matches the empirical data (P < 0.05), with a correlation coefficient of 0.9152. Therefore, a transformed Gompertzian growth function was obtained accordingly to D. The degree of correlation between the Gompertzian growth parameter and the coefficient D allows a new interpretation of the growth parameter K on the basis of morphological measurements of a set of tumour cell types, supporting the idea that cell-growth kinetics can be modulated by phenotypic organization of attached cells.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: M A A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Klamt
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Grieneisen
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Grivicich
authors.forename: J C F
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Moreira
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division; D048429:Cell Size; D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D005910:Glioma / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D010641:Phenotype; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured