The effects of coating the culture surface with bovine type I collagen on the culture properties of anchorage-dependent cells were investigated. When human fibroblasts were cultured on a surface coated with collagen at 5.8 x 10(-3) mg/cm(2), cell attachment and subsequent cell growth were both enhanced compared to the culture on an uncoated surface. The degrees of cell attachment and growth enhancement were numerically characterized using the time constant of cell adhesion (tau) and doubling time (t(d)) as kinetic parameters. These parameters applied to cultures of human keratinocytes and rabbit chondrocytes allowed the effects of collagen coating on the respective culture properties of both types of cells to be evaluated. In addition, the relative parameters R tau and R-td (defined as the ratios of the tau and t(d) values at a given collagen concentration against those without collagen coating, respectively) were employed to estimate the effects of collagen based on a standardized criterion. Similar R-tau and R-td profiles were obtained for collagen concentrations ranging from 5.8 x 10(-13) to 5.8 x 10(-3) mg/cm(2), whether the cells were fibroblasts, keratinocytes or chondrocytes. It was also revealed that coating the surface with collagen at a concentration over 5.8 x 10(-7) mg/cm(2) led to reductions in both the R-tau and R-td values, i.e. the promotion of cell attachment and growth, in the culture of each type of cells examined.