The selection of a stable rat hepatoma variant with concomitant increase in ploidy and permeability to glycerol

By repeated selection for longer survival in an isotonic solution of glycerol, a stable subline of Novikoff rat hepatoma cells has been isolated. The cells exhibit markedly increased resistances to osmotic lysis in isotonic solutions of glycerol. They are twice as large and have twice as many chromosomes as cells of the parental line. It is suggested that the osmotic stress procedure can be extended for the selection of numerous kinds of mutants and can be used as a method of analysis of membrane properties.