Electrofusion. A new, highly efficient technique for generating somatic cell hybrids.

A rapid and highly efficient method for generating viable somatic cell hybrids is described. A co-culture of clone ID and CH rodent cell lines was exposed to five successive electric pulses of about 1.5 kV/cm with a duration of 50 musec. This treatment induced extensive cell fusion, and independent hybrid clones were generated with a frequency of 1 X 10(-3), which represents a 100-fold increase over the polyethylene glycol induced fusion. Seventeen of them were propagated in selective medium, karyotyped and analysed for their enzyme markers, in order to establish their hybrid nature.