Biliary epithelial cells inhibit proliferation of co-cultured hepatic cancer cell line HepG2

Abstract

Objective To investigate the possible effect of mouse intrahepatic biliary epithelial cell line(mIBEC) on co-cultured human hepatoma cell lines HepG2.Methods HepG2 and mIBEC cells were co-cultured in a membrane-separated Transwell system.CellTiter 96 ○R AQueous One Solution Cell Proliferation Assay(Promega Corporation,Madison,WI) was used to examine HepG2 cell proliferation in the system with or without co-cultured mIBEC.Real-time PCR(RT-PCR) was used to determine Ki67 and caspase3 mRNA expression in HepG2 cells in a system with or without co-cultured mIBEC.Western blotting analysis was used to determine caspase3 protein level in HepG2 cells.Results The proliferation of the co-cultured HepG2 cells was significantly lower than those cultured alone(P 0.01).Expression of Ki67,a cell proliferation marker,was also significantly down-regulated in mIBEC co-cultured HepG2 cells(P 0.05).The levels of caspase3 mRNA and protein were significantly up-regulated in mIBEC co-cultured HepG2 cells compared with HepG2 cells cultured alone(P 0.05).Conclusion mIBEC can inhibit the proliferation of co-cultured HepG2,and caspase3 activation might be one of the reasons for the inhibitory effect of mIBEC against HepG2 cells.