What is "contact inhibition"

n. Inhibition of cell division in normal (noncancerous) cells when they contact a neighboring cell.

In cell biology, contact inhibition is the avoidance behavior exhibited by fibroblast-like cells when in contact with one another. In most cases, when two cells contact each other, they attempt to alter their locomotion in a different direction to avoid future collision. When collision is unavoidable, a different phenomenon occurs whereby growth of the cells of the culture itself eventually stops.