Somatic cell hybrid between the established human line D98 (presumptive HeLa) and 3T3.

Somatic cell hybrids have been made between an established human cell line with a long culture history and established mouse fibroblast line. When first analyzed, the hybrid cells contained nearly twice as many mouse chromosomes as the mouse parent line and a human chromosome complemnent of about half that of the human parent. There was further loss of human chromosomes on continued cultivation. This behavior resembles that of other human mouse hybrids and appears to be characteristic of the human-mouse combination. However, the number of human chromosomes is greater than in hybrids made from human diploid fibroblasts. Some clones contain more than a haptoid quantity of human DNA per cell and should synthesize a much greater number of human gene products.