Density invariance of cultured Chinese hamster cells with stage of the mitotic cycle.

Isopycnic banding of Chinese hamster line CHO cells in Ficoll gradients shows that a population in balanced, exponential growth is very homogeneous with respect to density, the coefficient of variation of the density distribution spectrum being less than 5% of the mean reduced density (i.e. density minus one). Similar measurements on synchronized cultures indicate that reduced density varies by less than 2% around the life cycle. The mean density of CHO cells in F-10 growth medium is calculated to be 1.051 after correction for osmotic effects of the Ficoll gradient.