Modeling of contact-inhibited animal cell growth on flat surfaces and spheres.

A model of contact-inhibited growth of cells on flat and spherical surfaces is presented. It shows that contact inhibition does not significantly affect the calculated growth rate of cells unless they are allowed to multiply a large amount from the original seeding density. Microcarriers seeded at low densities require long times to reach confluence because contact inhibition becomes important. In systems with both growth and separate cell death, the equilibrium fraction of holes in the confluent monolayer is below 8% if the death rate is less than half the growth rate, but increases rapidly as the death rate increases from that value.