Enhanced efficiency of cell hybridization by neuraminidase treatment

Cell hybridization techniques have already been utilized, but the outcome is usually not very stable. In order to achieve high stability we tried to achieve closer intercellular contact. Neuraminidase treatment was used to remove sialic acid from the cell membrane, since sialic acid usually prevents close contact between B cells and myeloma cells. After neuraminidase treatment, not only mouse-mouse hybridization but also human-mouse hybridization produced significantly more clones. Our results indicate that neuraminidase treatment is a useful method for generating hybridomas efficiently.