What is the Difference Between Cell Viability and Cell Proliferation

The main difference between cell viability and cell proliferation is that cell viability is the number of healthy cells in a sample, whereas cell proliferation is the process by which cells grow and divide to produce two daughter cells. 

Cell viability and cell proliferation are two measurements of assessing healthy cells. They are different characteristics of cells. 

Key Areas Covered

1. What is Cell Viability
– Definition, Features, Importance
2. What is Cell Proliferation
– Definition, Features, Importance
3. Similarities Between Cell Viability and Cell Proliferation
– Outline of Common Features
4. Difference Between Cell Viability and Cell Proliferation
– Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms  

Cell Proliferation, Cell Viability

What is Cell Viability

Cell viability is the number of cells viable in a sample. Determining the presence of viable and nonviable cells in a sample is important. It is used in drug screening to detect the effect of drugs on cell viability. Drugs can affect the proliferation and viability of cells. Therefore, detecting the number of viable cells remaining in the sample is important. Different assay methods are important in determining cell viability. They include enzyme activity, cell adherence, cell membrane permeability, co-enzyme production, ATP production, and nucleotide uptake activity.

Figure 1: Small Cell Carcinoma

Furthermore, plate counting is the widely employed method for viable cell counting; this identifies the number of actively growing cells in a sample. The spread plate method and streak plate method are two methods in plate counting. Nonviable cells are the cells that cannot grow to produce colonies in a cell culture. But, the total number of cells includes both viable and nonviable cells in a particular culture. Especially those cells that have undergone snap-freezing (the process of rapidly freezing samples with dry ice) are not viable anymore as their cell membranes shatter in response to rapid freezing.

What is Cell Proliferation

Cell proliferation is the process responsible for the increase of cell number. The two stages of cell proliferation are cell growth and cell division. During the growth, cells synthesize new DNA and proteins required by cell division, where the parent cells divide to produce daughter cells. The newly produced cells can replenish a particular cell group or replace dead or damaged tissue cells. Moreover, cell proliferation is balanced by apoptotic cell death and cell differentiation.

Figure 2: Cell Proliferation

Most of the adult cells in animals enter the cell cycle to proliferate. Some of these cells include smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, epithelial cells of internal organs, and endothelial cells. The main purpose of this proliferation is to replace the dead or damaged cells. On the other hand, adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells whose cell proliferation allows them to replenish the stem cell population and replace dead and damaged cells.

Similarities Between Cell Viability and Cell Proliferation

• Cell viability and cell proliferation are two characteristics of cells.
• They are important in assessing healthy cells.  

Difference Between Cell Viability and Cell Proliferation

Definition

Cell viability refers to the number of healthy cells in a sample. In contrast, cell proliferation refers to the process by which a cell grows and divides to produce two daughter cells.

Importance

Cell viability is important to distinguish between viable and nonviable cells, while cell proliferation is important to determine the mechanisms in action of certain genes, proteins, and pathways involved in cell survival or death after exposure to toxic agents.

Conclusion

In brief, cell viability and cell proliferation are two methods used to assess healthy cells. They are characteristics of cells. Cell viability is the number of healthy cells in a sample. Cell viability is the number of healthy cells in a sample. It distinguishes between viable and nonviable cells. In comparison, cell proliferation is the process of cells growing and dividing to produce two daughter cells. It is important to determine the mechanism of action of certain genes, proteins, and pathways used for cell survival and death after exposure to toxic agents. Therefore, their importance is the main difference between cell viability and cell proliferation. 

References:

1. Adan A, Kiraz Y, Baran Y. Cell Proliferation and Cytotoxicity Assays. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2016;17(14):1213-1221. doi: 10.2174/1389201017666160808160513. PMID: 27604355.
2. Staff, B. (2017, June 30). Assessing Cell Health: Viability and proliferation. 

Image Courtesy:

1. “Small cell carcinoma (5018644792)” By Yale Rosen from USA – Own Work (CC-BY SA 2.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Mitosis diagram” By Marek Kultys – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia