Establishment of novel cell line for bioartificial liver

Though livers from cadavers being transplanted, more patients are waiting the grafting. Because of this shortage of the donation, artificial liver is expected. But at present, artificial livers do not satisfy the patients yet. In this study, we attempted to establish novel hepatoma cell line for better artificial liver. We have ever introduced anti-apoptosis gene into hybridoma cells and this transfection delayed cell death. Because of this prolonging culture, the transfectants produce 2 times more antibodies than wild type. For the longer-term or permanent artificial liver, we introduced bcl-2, anti-apoptosis gene, to HepG2 hepatoma cell. The immuno-blotting technique showed that HepG2 transfected with bcl-2 (Hep-Bcl) over-expressed Bcl-2 and that mock transfectant (Hep-S) did not. After 19 days culture in a serum-free medium, the viability of Hep-Bcl2 was 73% while that of Hep-S was 7%. As the liver function, we measured albumin production by ELISA. After 15 days culture, the albumin concentration in culture supernatant of Hep-Bcl was 30 ng/ml, while that of Hep-S was 24 ng/ml. The transfection of bcl-2 gene delayed cell death and this prolonging culture increased albumin production. Introduction of Bcl-2 was effective for generating novel hepatoma cell line for artificial liver.