A cytological analysis of 26 polyethylene glycol (PEG) induced human/hamster hybrid lines has shown that such lines are similar to inactivated Sendai virus (ISV) induced hybrids in respect to stability, retention of specific chromosomes, and cell selection. The evolution of stable hybrid cell lines carrying variable human chromosome complements depends upon a balance being established between the retained human and hamster genomes. This balance is a result of random loss of human and hamster chromosomes followed by selection of the fittest stem lines. A major mechanism of chromosome loss may be fragmentation and elimination of acentric fragments. Twelve of the 26 lines had stabilized by the 30th passage, an incidence similar to that found with ISV-induced hybrids studied in this laboratory. Thus, PEG may be considered to be an ideal chemical for inducing somatic cell hybrids for genetic analysis.
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