The mean transit times through the cell cycle from the data obtained by flow cytometer or flow microfluorimeter can be estimated. The algorithm consists of two procedures: polynomial fitting by least-squares and cell-cycle kinetics. The raw data points are fitted by the polynomial fitting to prepare the input data set for the second procedure for computing the mean transit times according to the set of integral equations proposed by H.P. Beck (1978). Because the flow cytometer can measure the amount of fluorescence from single cells usually stained by a dye, cell-cycle progression can be followed by observing the DNA contents. Computing the mean transit times of the cell-cycle phases should be useful in many applications of flow cytometry.
The Beck's integral equations to estimate the mean transit times
References
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