[The cytogenetic study of established Syrian hamster cell lines. I. A comparative analysis of the karyotypes of the BHK-21 (C-13) sublines].

Karyotypes of eight BHK-21 (C-13) cell sublines, obtained from a variety of sources and available in the cell culture collection of our Institute, have been studied using G- and C-banding, and silver staining of chromosomes. These sublines with similar modal numbers of chromosomes (40-44) are found to vary essentially in composition of both normal chromosomes and markers. In spite of the fact that many markers are constant in several cell sublines, it was impossible to determine the marker chromosomes typical of BHK-21 (C-13) cell by analogy with those typical of HeLa cells. Our studies have shown that BHK-21 (C-13) cells exhibit nonrandom chromosomal alteration involving heterochromatic regions, particularly long arms of X- and Y-chromosomes and centromeric regions of 1, 3, 6 and X-chromosomes. Deletions of Xq, Yq and heterochromatic short arms of autosomes have also been observed. The markers more commonly consist of the material of chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, X and Y.