[Intercellular contacts accelerate the growth of cell colonies in a chick embryo cell culture].

In sparsely seeded (1.10(3) cells/sm2) chick embryo cell cultures no cell proliferation commonly occurs. However, such factors as increasing cell density, a conditioned medium, or addition of ethanol fixed homologous cells to the culture may accelerate the cell growth. The mitogenic action of fixed cells serves as a contact stimulation of cell proliferation (Gasparian, Grigorian, 1989, 1990). Distant and contact cell-to cell interactions, that involve soluble and insoluble cell derived mitogens, are supposed to operate during the log phase of culture growth. The addition of an excess of cells to the previously sparse culture may mimic the cell microenvironment commonly existing in subconfluent cultures. The role of diverse cell-to cell contacts in the cell growth regulation is discussed. The addition of ethanol-fixed cells may improve the cell cloning technique.