Control and maintenance of mammalian cell size

• Main Author: Cooper Stephen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2004-09-01
• Series: BMC Cell Biology
• Subjects: cell cycle; cell size; exponential growth; linear growth; shift-up; continuum model
• Online Access: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2121/5/35

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Conlon and Raff propose that mammalian cells grow linearly during the division cycle. According to Conlon and Raff, cells growing linearly do not need a size checkpoint to maintain a constant distribution of cell sizes. If there is no cell-size-control system, then exponential growth is not allowed, as exponential growth, according to Conlon and Raff, would require a cell-size-control system.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>A reexamination of the model and experiments of Conlon and Raff indicates that exponential growth is fully compatible with cell size maintenance, and that mammalian cells have a system to regulate and maintain cell size that is related to the process of S-phase initiation. Mammalian cell size control and its relationship to growth rate–faster growing cells are larger than slower growing cells–is explained by the initiation of S phase occurring at a relatively constant cell size coupled with relatively invariant S- and G2-phase times as interdivision time varies.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>This view of the mammalian cell cycle, the continuum model, explains the mass growth pattern during the division cycle, size maintenance, size determination, and the kinetics of cell-size change following a shift-up from slow to rapid growth.</p>