Comparison of cytostatic sensitivities of L 1210 cells and human stimulated lymphocytes in three cell proliferation assays.

Three methods of measuring cell proliferation, viz., cellular H-thymidine uptake, counting of cells in suspension, and counting of colonies of cells grown in agar contained in glass capillaries, were compared by studying cell growth kinetics using the L 1210 cell line. We found the agar colony culture method to be most suitable and methodologically most advantageous. Using these cytokinetic models, we investigated the differential sensitivities of exponential and stationary phase L 1210 cells and normal, human, PHA-stimulated, peripheral T-lymphocytes to methotrexate, cytosine arabinoside, azathioprine, and a partially purified lymphocyte chalone preparation. L 1210 cells in exponential growth showed a higher drug sensitivity to all the agents tested than those in stationary growth. Normal, human T-lymphocytes exhibited less sensitivity to the tested agents. We found the agar culture to be more than twice as sensitive as the suspension culture and up to 8-fold more sensitive than the 3H-thymidine uptake method.