Simultaneous growth of two cancer cell lines evidences variability in growth rates

TL;DR

This study investigates the variable growth rates of co-cultured cancer cell lines, revealing that initial proportions influence growth dynamics and proposing a log-quadratic model to better explain and fit the observed data.

Contribution

The paper introduces a log-quadratic growth model accounting for clone variability, improving upon classical exponential models for co-cultured cancer cells.

Findings

Relative growth depends on initial proportions.

Log-quadratic model fits data better than exponential.

Variability in clone growth rates explains observed phenomena.

Abstract

Cancer cells co-cultured in vitro reveal unexpected differential growth rates that classical exponential growth models cannot account for. Two non-interacting cell lines were grown in the same culture, and counts of each species were recorded at periodic times. The relative growth of population ratios was found to depend on the initial proportion, in contradiction with the traditional exponential growth model. The proposed explanation is the variability of growth rates for clones inside the same cell line. This leads to a log-quadratic growth model that provides both a theoretical explanation to the phenomenon that was observed, and a better fit to our growth data.