Fusion of somatic cells to embryonic stem cells induces reprogramming of the somatic nucleus and can be used to study the effect of trans-acting factors from the pluripotent cell over the differentiated nucleus. However, fusion only occurs in a small fraction of the cells exposed to fusogenic conditions, hence the need for a protocol that produces high fusion rate with minimal cell damage, coupled with a method capable of identifying and selecting these rare events. Here, we describe a protocol to induce formation of bi-species mouse pluripotent/bovine somatic heterokaryons, as well as same-species homokaryons, using polyethylene glycol (PEG). To identify bi-species fusion products, heterokaryons were labeled using cell type-specific fluorescent antibodies and selected using imaging (Amnis ImageStream Mark II) and traditional (BD FACSAria I) flow cytometry. Heterokaryons selected with this method produced ES cell-like colonies in vitro. This procedure can be combined with downstream applications such as nucleic acid isolation for RT-PCR and RNA-Seq, and used as a tool to study somatic cell nuclear reprogramming.

体细胞与胚胎干细胞的融合诱导体细胞核的重新编程，可用于研究来自多能细胞的反式作用因子对分化细胞核的影响。然而，融合仅发生在暴露于融合条件的一小部分细胞中，因此需要一种能够以最小的细胞损伤产生高融合率的方案，以及能够识别和选择这些罕见事件的方法。在这里，我们描述了使用聚乙二醇（PEG）诱导双种小鼠多能/牛体细胞异核体以及同种同核体形成的方案。为了鉴定双物种融合产物，使用细胞类型特异性荧光抗体标记异核体，并使用成像 (Amnis ImageStream Mark II) 和传统 (BD FACSAria I) 流式细胞术进行选择。用这种方法选择的异核体在体外产生ES细胞样集落。该过程可以与下游应用（例如用于 RT-PCR 和 RNA-Seq 的核酸分离）相结合，并用作研究体细胞核重编程的工具。