Hep G2

Hep G2 Cells

Hep G2 (or HepG2) is a human liver cancer cell line.

Hep G2 is an immortal cell line which was derived in 1975 from the liver tissue of a 15-year-old Caucasian male from Argentina with a well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma.[1] These cells are epithelial in morphology, have a modal chromosome number of 55, and are not tumorigenic in nude mice.[2] The cells secrete a variety of major plasma proteins, e.g., albumin, and the acute-phase proteins fibrinogen, alpha 2-macroglobulin, alpha 1-antitrypsin, transferrin and plasminogen.[citation needed] They have been grown successfully in large-scale cultivation systems. Hepatitis B virus surface antigens have not been detected. Hep G2 will respond to stimulation with human growth hormone.[citation needed]

Hep G2 cells are a suitable in vitro model system for the study of polarized human hepatocytes. Another well-characterized polarized hepatocyte cell line is the rat hepatoma-derived hybrid cell line WIF-B.[3] With the proper culture conditions, Hep G2 cells display robust morphological and functional differentiation with a controllable formation of apical and basolateral cell surface domains (van IJzendoorn et al., 1997; 2000, etc.) that resemble the bile canalicular (BC) and sinusoidal domains, respectively, in vivo.

Because of their high degree of morphological and functional differentiation in vitro, Hep G2 cells are a suitable model to study the intracellular trafficking and dynamics of bile canalicular, sinusoidal membrane proteins, and lipids in human hepatocytes in vitro.[4] This can be important for the study of human liver diseases that are caused by an incorrect subcellular distribution of cell surface proteins, e.g., hepatocanalicular transport defects such as Dubin-Johnson Syndrome and progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC), and familial hypercholesterolemia.[citation needed] Hep G2 cells and their derivatives are also used as a model system for studies of liver metabolism and toxicity of xenobiotics,[5] the detection of environmental and dietary cytotoxic and genotoxic (and thus cytoprotective, anti-genotoxic, and cogenotoxic) agents,[6] understanding hepatocarcinogenesis [citation needed], and for drug targeting studies [citation needed]. Hep G2 cells are also employed in trials with bio-artificial liver devices [citation needed].

  1. ^ Aden DP, Fogel A, Plotkin S, Damjanov I, Knowles BB (December 1979). "Controlled synthesis of HBsAg in a differentiated human liver carcinoma-derived cell line". Nature. 282 (5739): 615–616. Bibcode:1979Natur.282..615A. doi:10.1038/282615a0. PMID 233137. S2CID 4359386.
  2. ^ Hep G2, American Type Culture Collection
  3. ^ Ihrke G, Neufeld EB, Meads T, Shanks MR, Cassio D, Laurent M, et al. (December 1993). "WIF-B cells: an in vitro model for studies of hepatocyte polarity". The Journal of Cell Biology. 123 (6 Pt 2): 1761–1775. doi:10.1083/jcb.123.6.1761. PMC 2290861. PMID 7506266.
  4. ^ Moscato S, Ronca F, Campani D, Danti S (January 2015). "Poly(vinyl alcohol)/gelatin Hydrogels Cultured with HepG2 Cells as a 3D Model of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Morphological Study". Journal of Functional Biomaterials. 6 (1): 16–32. doi:10.3390/jfb6010016. PMC 4384098. PMID 25590431.
  5. ^ Fanelli A (2016). "HepG2 (liver hepatocellular carcinoma): cell culture". HepG2. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  6. ^ Mersch-Sundermann V, Knasmüller S, Wu XJ, Darroudi F, Kassie F (May 2004). "Use of a human-derived liver cell line for the detection of cytoprotective, antigenotoxic and cogenotoxic agents". Toxicology. 198 (1–3): 329–340. doi:10.1016/j.tox.2004.02.009. PMID 15138059.