Human endothelial culture supernatant (HECS): a growth factor for hybridomas.

Human endothelial culture supernatant (HECS) had strong growth-promotion activity for hybridoma cells: the yield of hybridomas after fusion was increased at least 2-fold over that in the presence of feeder cells, such as mouse macrophages and spleen cells. Moreover, HECS could substitute for feeder cells when hybridomas were cultured at the single-cell level, and strongly enhanced the proliferation of hybrid cells. furthermore, the presence of human endothelial cells prolonged the stability of human-mouse hybridomas, producing human immunoglobulin, hybrids known to survive poorly during culture in vitro.