Table 3 –

Examples of naturally occurring changes in cell density

Occasion	Density change	Effect on cell function	Reference
Cell cycle
Budding yeast	G1: ↑ G2/M: ↓	Not known	[11,16,40]
Mammalian cells	M: ↓	Not known	[41–43]
Metabolic status
Lymphocyte inactivation	↑	Correlates with decreased metabolic activity	[3,45]
Carbon starvation in yeast	↑	Potentially cytoprotective	[23,24]
Amino acid starvation in yeast	↓	Not known	[20]
Carbon starvation in bacteria	↑	Not known	[3,22]
Spore formation (fungi and bacteria)	↑	Contributes to stress resistance of spores in bacteria	[47,48,51]
Differentiation
Hematopoiesis	↑	Not known	[52]
Chondrocyte differentiation	↓	Contributes to bone growth	[53]
Pathological conditions
Cell senescence yeast	↓	Not known	[31]
Cell senescence human cells	↓	Not known	[31]
Apoptosis	↑	Required for caspase activation	[55–57]
Sickle cell disease	↑	Promotes polymerization of Sickle β-globin, altering cell shape and stiffness.	[15,60]