Hepatocellular carcinoma is the primary malignancy of the liver and a leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. The etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma is closely linked to infection with hepatitis B virus (1). Because of the causative role of HBV in liver cancers, cellular models of HBV-infected hepatocellular carcinomas have been developed for understanding the progression and fundamental biology of liver cancers. The Hep-G2/2.2.15 human hepatoblastoma cell line, a subclone of HepG2 human hepatoblastoma that stably expresses the hepatitis B virus, is one of the most widely used models for HBV-associated liver disease. Hep-G2/2.2.15 cells possess lower proliferation and invasion activity than parental HepG2 cells and have low tumorigenicity in nude mice (2). Like parental HepG2 cells, Hep-G2/2.2.15 cells express the microtubule-associated marker doublecortin (DCX). Source:Hep-G2/2.2.15 was produced from Hep-G2 cells stably transformed with the hepatitis-B virus (HBV) genome. Hep-G2/2.2.15 cells are resistant to G418 and contain two head-to-tail dimers of the HBV type D genome (3). The parental HepG2 cell line was isolated from hepatoblastoma tissue of a 15-year-old male patient (4).Research Category:
•Cancer
•Infectious Diseases