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Establishment and characterization of an immortalized human hepatocyte line for the development of bioartificial liver system

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Abstract

For further research and application of Bioartificial liver systems (BAL), active proliferation capacity and full hepatic functionality of the biomaterials is mandatory. However, there are still no suitable cell lines meeting the requirements for an ideal cell source in BAL development that makes it necessary to explore other sources. Here, we constructed a new cell line derived from well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma tissues designated NHBL2. Immunol staining showed that NHBL2 possessed the capacity of synthesizing albumin and CYP2E1 and quantitative analysis showed that the albumin synthesis ability of NHBL2 was comparable to C3A while urea production was highly abundant of NHBL2 compared with that of C3A. Using gene expression microarray analysis, we found that the expression levels of a set of genes encoding Phase I and Phase II metabolizing enzymes as well as many others related to common bioconversion and metabolic processes were significantly higher in NHBL2 cell line than that in C3A. Moreover, functional optimization assay in Matrigel showed obvious improvements of liver-related function level and a low malignance of this cell line. These findings indicated that NHBL2 possessed relatively attractive and full hepatic functionality that might be a potential cell line for BAL development.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2014A050503041, 2017A020215046, 2017B02029003), Guangzhou Bioengineering Research Center for Gastroenterology Diseases (7415696196402) and President Foundation of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (2016C001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China

    Qun Yan, Lijuan Deng, Xinmei Zhao, Liangying Ye, Yuxin Fang, Yan Meng, Zenan Wang, Xiaobei Luo, Side Liu & Aimin Li

  2. Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117597, Singapore

    Zenan Wang & Xiaobei Luo

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  1. Qun Yan
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  2. Lijuan Deng
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  3. Xinmei Zhao
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  4. Liangying Ye
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  5. Yuxin Fang
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  6. Yan Meng
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  7. Zenan Wang
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  8. Xiaobei Luo
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  9. Side Liu
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  10. Aimin Li
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Correspondence to Side Liu or Aimin Li.

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Yan, Q., Deng, L., Zhao, X. et al. Establishment and characterization of an immortalized human hepatocyte line for the development of bioartificial liver system. Cytotechnology 70, 665–674 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-017-0167-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-017-0167-3

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