Characterization of immortalized rat hepatic stellate cell lines transfected with SV40 T antigen

Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) play an important role in fibrogenesis of the liver through their activity of biosynthesizing a widely variety of extrac ellular matrix proteins. However, in vitro experiments using primary cultur ed HSCs are limited, because HSCs in primary culture tend to dedifferentiat e quickly. We recently established several HSC lines by transfection with S V 40 large T antigen (SV40 TAg) without any culture crisis. The cell lines have both morphological and functional characteristics of HSCs, Immunohisto chemically, these cell lines showed positive staining of SV 40 TAg in nucle i and desmin and type IV collagen in cytoplasms. Cell lines also had messen ger RNA expressions of type I collagen cll chain, alpha-smooth muscle actin , hepatocyte growth factor, transforming growth factor-beta(1). These cell lines would be useful for in vitro studies in regard to the mechanism of di fferentiation or transformation of rat HSCs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Irel and Ltd. All rights reserved.