Positive control of transformed phenotype in hybrids between SV40-transformed and normal human cells.

Somatic cell hybrids have been obtained between SV40-transformed Lesch-Nyhan fibroblasts, which are deficient in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) and display glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase A (G6PD-A) activity, and late-passage HGPRT-positive W138 human embryo fibroblasts, which display G6PD-B activity. The human-human hybrid clones, which display G6PD-A and G6PD-B and heteropolymers of the two enzyme forms, have the same growth characteristic as the SV40-transformed parental cells and behave as continuous cell lines. The SV40 tumor antigen, the gene for which has been assigned to human chromosome 7, is present in all clones examined.