DENSITY DEPENDENT INHIBITION OF GROWTH

The phenomenon exhibited by most normal (anchorage dependent) animal cells in culture that stop dividing once a critical cell density is reached. The critical density is considerably higher for most cells than the density at which a monolayer is formed; for this reason, most cell behaviourists prefer the term density dependent inhibition of growth as this avoids any confusion with contact inhibition of locomotion, a totally different phenomenon that is contact dependent.