Isolation and characterization of a human hepatic epithelial-like cell line (AKN-1) from a normal liver

The isolation and characterization of human liver cell lines are rather dif ficult due to limited material adl pool. growth in cell culture. In this re port, we present the isolation, culture and characterization of a new epith elial-like liver cell line (AKN-1) with a heterogeneous cell population and many characteristics of the biliary epithelium. The AKN-1 cell line staine d positively with antibodies to epithelial cytokeratin polypetides CK 8, 18 , and 19. In addition, the cell line expressed the anti-human epithelial-re lated antigen (MOC-31), the human epithelial antigen (HEA), and the gamma-g lutamyl transpeptidase, the hematopoietic growth factor, stent cell factor, and also its receptor, c-kit. The cell line failed to express albumin and factor 8 by immunohistochemistry. It did show, however, a twofold increase in 7-ethoxyresorufin-deethylase activity. Cytogenetic characterization reve aled rare breakpoints in chromosome 2, which to our knowledge, have not yet been reported in liver cells.