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With the aid of flow cytometry (FCM), distribution of DNA content in 40 cases of brain tumour, primary culture cell, and secondary culture cell can be determined and chronological change after subculture is studied from the analysis of their cell cycle. In most primary cultures, proliferating index (PI) is likely to decrease, which suggests that environmental change might affect the growth activity. In comparison with that of the original sample, DNA-histogram of the secondary culture can be divided into the following 3 types: the type recovering to the original pattern ('adapting type'), in which astrocytoma, ependymoma, glioblastoma and medulloblastoma are included, 2) the type increasing more at G2 + M phase than the original ('proliferating type'), in which meningioma and some of glioblastoma are included, and 3) the type decreasing so far as to induce degeneration or death ('degenerating type'), in which pituitary adenoma and neurinoma are included. FCM is of great usefulness for the study of cell kinetics of a tumour cell undergoing culture and the present method will be available for the respective study of biological characteristics of the cultured cell, established cell line or sensitivity test for antineoplastic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]