Establishment and characterization of a new human hepatocellular carcinomacell line, HAK-3, and its response to growth factors

A new human hepatocellular (HCC) cell line, HAK-3, was established from a r esected HCC of a Japanese, female patient. HAK-3 retains morphologic featur es of the original HCC, and proliferates in a monolayered sheet (doubling t ime: 26 h). HAK-3 is a single aneuploid cell population with a DNA index of 2.42, the karyotype is human, chromosomes are 80-85 (mode: 83), and secret es fibronectin and tissue polypeptide antigen. Epidermal growth factor (EGF ) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) dose-dependently accelerated th e cell proliferation, while deletion-type hepatocyte growth factor (dHGF) t ended to suppress the proliferation, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-a lpha showed almost no influence. dHGF induced the decrease of cell adhesive ness, changed the cell morphology to spindle-shaped cells, increased cell m ovement, and showed chemotactic effects with the increase of its concentrat ion gradient in cultures. HAK-3 would be useful in studies on the accelerat ion mechanisms of cancer cell proliferation by growth factors and of chemot axis by dHGF.