Turnover of molecules which maintain the normal surfaces of contact-inhibited cells.

In confluent cultures normal chick embryo fibroblasts become highty agglutinable by concanavalin A within 6 hours after their synthesis of protein is inhibited by cycloheximide, pactamycin, or emetine. When growing cells are similarly treated, they fail to become more agglutinable. Apparently, molecules which maintain the normal structure of the cell surface must be replaced continually when cell growth is contact inhibited.