Hep G2 (or HepG2) is a human liver cancer cell line.
Hep G2 is an immortal cell line which was derived in 1975 from the liver tissue of a 15-year-old Caucasian male from Argentina with a well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> These cells are epithelial in morphology, have a modal chromosome number of 55, and are not tumorigenic in nude mice.<ref>Hep G2, American Type Culture Collection</ref> The cells secrete a variety of major plasma proteins, e.g., albumin, and the acute-phase proteins fibrinogen, alpha 2-macroglobulin, alpha 1-antitrypsin, transferrin and plasminogen.Template:Citation needed They have been grown successfully in large-scale cultivation systems. Hepatitis B virus surface antigens have not been detected. Hep G2 will respond to stimulation with human growth hormone.Template:Citation needed
Hep G2 cells are a suitable in vitro model system for the study of polarized human hepatocytes. Another well-characterized polarized hepatocyte cell line is the rat hepatoma-derived hybrid cell line WIF-B.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> With the proper culture conditions, Hep G2 cells display robust morphological and functional differentiation with a controllable formation of apical and basolateral cell surface domains (van IJzendoorn et al., 1997; 2000, etc.) that resemble the bile canalicular (BC) and sinusoidal domains, respectively, in vivo.
Because of their high degree of morphological and functional differentiation in vitro, Hep G2 cells are a suitable model to study the intracellular trafficking and dynamics of bile canalicular, sinusoidal membrane proteins, and lipids in human hepatocytes in vitro.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This can be important for the study of human liver diseases that are caused by an incorrect subcellular distribution of cell surface proteins, e.g., hepatocanalicular transport defects such as Dubin-Johnson Syndrome and progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC), and familial hypercholesterolemia.Template:Citation needed Hep G2 cells and their derivatives are also used as a model system for studies of liver metabolism and toxicity of xenobiotics,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the detection of environmental and dietary cytotoxic and genotoxic (and thus cytoprotective, anti-genotoxic, and cogenotoxic) agents,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> understanding hepatocarcinogenesis Template:Citation needed, and for drug targeting studies Template:Citation needed. Hep G2 cells are also employed in trials with bio-artificial liver devices Template:Citation needed.
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