Optimization of electrofusion in vitro for rhabdomyosarcoma cells

Cell-cell fusion is an important natural and engineered process for in-depth studies into hybridomas, developmental biology, immunology and various cellular therapies. It is also a powerful tool for analysis of gene expression, chromosomal mapping, antibody production, cloning mammals, and cancer immunotherapy. However, research so far has primarily focused on cell models such as C.elegans, drosophila, myoblasts, spleen myeloma cell hybrids and various plant protoplasts. Rhabdomyosarcoma cells are a rare form of musculoskeletal cancer cells found in the head, neck, and other less skeletal areas of the human cancer patient´s body. As these cells do not normally undergo fusion naturally, they are an interesting model for studying cell fusion. Among all the techniques for fusion, electrofusion (electroporation) can be applied to a wide range of cell types with high efficiency and high post-fusion viability. By coupling these cells with this technique, the effects on cell proliferation, growth pattern, and hybridoma count were investigated. Overall, the experimental results showed that an adequate electrical stimulation helped to facilitate the fusion and proliferation of the RD cells. Furthermore, a DC current produced the highest number of hybridomas, while maintaining the highest proliferation rate. After subtracting for the control samples, an average fusion yield of 24% was obtained under this DC setting, which is comparable to the fusion yield of 20% obtained using the same technique by other researchers. This is a promising result for its application in the production of monoclonal antibodies for cancer research and treatment. This proof-of-concept is predicted to be useful to both the medical scientists in the field of immunology and cell-based therapy, as well as defense scientists working on chemical and biological warfare.