Are there differences in contact inhibition of movement between normal and malignant cells

Abstract

STOKER¹ claimed that the malignant cells transformed from BHK cells by polyoma virus showed a lack of contact inhibition of movement unlike their progenitor strain BHK 21 C 13. One of us² reported that measurements made of the degree of contact inhibition shown by these two cell types showed that both displayed the same degree of contact inhibition. Measurements were, however, made at one culture age and population density of cells. It is known that contact inhibition of movement of embryonic chick fibroblasts varies with both population density and culture age³. Neither Stoker nor Curtis examined the effects of these factors on the contact inhibition of Py or C13 cells. Thus the disagreement between the results of Stoker and one of us is ripe for further investigation. We report here measurements on the contact inhibition of these two cell types at different culture ages and densities.