Hep G2
Encyclopedia
Technical reference
ATCC No. HB-8065 Hep G2 (Hepatocellular carcinomaHepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
, human)
Hep G2 is a perpetual cell line
Biological immortality
Biological immortality refers to a stable rate of mortality as a function of chronological age. Some individual cells and entire organisms in some species achieve this state either throughout their existence or after living long enough. This requires that death occur from injury or disease rather...
which was derived from the liver tissue of a 15 year old Caucasian American male with a well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma. These cells are epithelial
Epithelium
Epithelium is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. Epithelial tissues line the cavities and surfaces of structures throughout the body, and also form many glands. Functions of epithelial cells include secretion, selective...
in morphology, have a model chromosome number
Ploidy
Ploidy is the number of sets of chromosomes in a biological cell.Human sex cells have one complete set of chromosomes from the male or female parent. Sex cells, also called gametes, combine to produce somatic cells. Somatic cells, therefore, have twice as many chromosomes. The haploid number is...
of 55 and are not tumorigenic in nude mice. The cells secrete a variety of major plasma proteins; e.g., albumin
Albumin
Albumin refers generally to any protein that is water soluble, which is moderately soluble in concentrated salt solutions, and experiences heat denaturation. They are commonly found in blood plasma, and are unique to other blood proteins in that they are not glycosylated...
, transferrin
Transferrin
Transferrins are iron-binding blood plasma glycoproteins that control the level of free iron in biological fluids. In humans, it is encoded by the TF gene.Transferrin is a glycoprotein that binds iron very tightly but reversibly...
and the acute phase proteins fibrinogen
Fibrinogen
Fibrinogen is a soluble plasma glycoprotein, synthesised by the liver, that is converted by thrombin into fibrin during blood coagulation. This is achieved through processes in the coagulation cascade that activate the zymogen prothrombin to the serine protease thrombin, which is responsible for...
, alpha 2-macroglobulin, alpha 1-antitrypsin
Alpha 1-antitrypsin
Alpha 1-Antitrypsin or α1-antitrypsin is a protease inhibitor belonging to the serpin superfamily. It is generally known as serum trypsin inhibitor. Alpha 1-antitrypsin is also referred to as alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor because it inhibits a wide variety of proteases...
, transferrin
Transferrin
Transferrins are iron-binding blood plasma glycoproteins that control the level of free iron in biological fluids. In humans, it is encoded by the TF gene.Transferrin is a glycoprotein that binds iron very tightly but reversibly...
and plasminogen
Plasmin
Plasmin is an important enzyme present in blood that degrades many blood plasma proteins, most notably, fibrin clots. The degradation of fibrin is termed fibrinolysis. In humans, the plasmin protein is encoded by the PLG gene.- Function :...
. They have been grown successfully in large scale cultivation systems. Hepatitis B virus surface antigens have not been detected. Hep G2 cells have been shown to be G418 resistant (400 µg/mL). The cells will respond to stimulation with human growth hormone
Growth hormone
Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. Growth hormone is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior...
.
HepG2 cells are a suitable in vitro model system for the study of polarized human hepatocytes. (Another well-characterized polarized hepatocyte cell lines includes the rat hepatoma-derived hybrid cell line WIF-B (Ihrke et al., 1993)). With the proper culture conditions, HepG2 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, HepG2 cells are a suitable model to study the intracellular trafficking and dynamics of bile canalicular and sinusoidal membrane proteins and lipids in human hepatocytes in vitro. 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.
HepG2 cells and its derivatives are also used as a model system for studies of liver metabolism and toxicity of xenobiotics, the detection of cytoprotective, anti (environmental and dietary) genotoxic and cogenotoxic agents, understanding hepatocarcinogenesis, and for drug targeting studies. HepG2 cells are also employed in trials with bio-artificial liver devices.