The purpose of this study was to improve the application of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) for the flow cytometric analysis of cell kinetics. In order to obtain a quantitative measure of the DNA synthesis rate (or the number of divided cells), BrdUrd should replace thymidine (dThd) completely in the newly synthesized DNA strands. The de novo synthesis of dThd monophosphate competing with BrdUrd incorporation was stopped by fluorodeoxyuridine (FdUrd). Cells of a human leukemic cell line (REH) were exposed 4.0 BrdUrd for either 20 min, 8 h, or 24 h. Bromodeoxyuridine incorporation was determined by a monoclonal antibody as well as by the BrdUrd/Hoechst (HI technique. Counterstaining of the DNA was performed with propidium iodide or ethidium bromide. DNA fluorescences were measured in both techniques with a two-parameter flow cytometer, the histograms being analyzed by computer. It was found that FdUrd is required in the BrdUrd/ H technique for replacement of dThd at low BrdUrd concentrations and long incubation times. With short incubation periods, as used for detection by the monoclonal anti-BrdUrd antibody, FdUrd increases the incorporated BrdUrd amount when BrdUrd concentrations of 10 pM or less are applied.Key terms: Bromodeoxyuridine, fluorodeoxyuridine, DNA synthesis rate, human leukemic cell line, flow cytometry Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) is used with increasing frequency in cell kinetic studies after the introduction of the Hoechst (H) quenching effect into flow cytometry by Latt (23,241. Bohmer (2) and Kubbies and Rabinovitch (20) described methods of cell cycle analysis using the quenching of H in divided cells. Perturbations of the cell cycle of normal and tumor cells were easy to investigate with the BrdUrdM technique (1,29). Counterstaining of total DNA per cell with ethidium bromide (EB) simplified the analysis of the DNA synthesis in the first cycle (3,4,16). This two-parameter technique allows flow cytometric measurement of the DNA synthesis rate even in subcompartments of the S-phase after a few hours of BrdUrd incubation (28,151). Since it is now possible to measure DNA synthesis with the monoclonal anti-BrdUrd antibody (10,18,26), BrdUrd is being applied increasingly for cell cycle studies. It is therefore of interest to know the exact conditions of quantitative BrdUrd incorporation.The quantity of BrdUrd instead of thymidine (dThd) incorporated per unit of time into DNA may provide information on the DNA synthesis rate. For quantitative assessment of the DNA synthesis rate, it is most convenient if BrdUrd replaces dThd completely in the newly synthesized DNA strands. It is, however, to be expected that the endogenous synthesis of the DNA precursor dThd monophosphate competes with the exogenously supplied BrdUrd. In addition, an intracellular precursor pool of dThd monophosphate exists at the beginning of BrdUrd incorporation (7) and should not mix with the newly synthesized BrdUrd monophosphate. Dormer applied fluorodeoxyuridine (FdUrd) to block the endogenous synthesis of dThd monophosphate for us...