A Modified Protocol for Accurate Detection of Cell Fusion-Mediated Premature Chromosome Condensation in Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes

When interphase cells are fused with mitotic cells, loosely distributing chromatins in nuclei are induced to form prematurely condensed chromosomes. In this paper we report a modified protocol to unequivocally detect prematurely condensed chromosomes in human peripheral blood lymphocytes that were fused with mitotic Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. To examine cell fusion-mediated premature chromosome condensation (PCC), we conducted morphological analysis by differential interference contrast microscopy and molecular cytogenetic analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization using pan-centromeric and telomeric peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes. These modified procedures may serve to improve the usefulness of the technique of PCC in cytogenetic investigations.