Establishment of a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line EH-H1 and its biological characteristics

Objective:To establish a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line EH-H1 by primary culture and to investigate its biological characteristics.Methods: Tumor tissues obtained from patients treated in our hospital were made into single-cell suspension and were primary cultured,passaged in DMEM medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum.The morphology of the cells was observed under light and electronic microscope;the cell growth curve was plotted.Radioimmunoassay was employed to examine the AFP and HBV expression.Cytogenetic study was performed with the cell line using G-banding chromosome analysis.The tumorigenicity of the cell line was studied in nude mice by subcutaneous injection.Results: We have successfully established a novel hepatocellular carcinoma cell line EH-H1,which could be passaged for over 80 generations with unchanged morphology and growth cycle(24 h).Radioimmunoassay results demonstrated that all EH-H1 cells were HBV negative with slight AFP expression(0.6 μg/L).G banding results indicated that EH-H1 cells were aneuploid cells,primarily hyperdiploid.Tumors were formed in all the 10 mice subcutaneously inoculated with EH-H1 cells.The pathological types and differentiation degrees of the newly formed tumors were identical to their parental hepatocellular carcinoma.Conclusion: The established EH-H1 cell line in this study maintaines the biologic characteristics of its original carcinoma,and might be a stable cell line of human hepatocellular carcinoma.