Separation of Solid Tumor Cell Populations1

Separation of subpopulations of cells from mouse solid tumors has been achieved with two methods: centrifugal elutriation and equilibrium density centrifugation. Elutriation resulted in enrichment of normal cells, and of tumor cells in specific cell cycle phases. Density centrifugation appeared to separate the well-oxygenated from the chronically hypoxic cells. These methods have been used to determine in vivo the cell-cycle phase-dependent cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs toward tumor cells.