Establishment of a human cell line (HCC-T) from a patient with hepatoma bearing no evidence of hepatitis B or A virus infection.

A human hepatoma cell line, designated HCC-T, was established. The tumor was surgically obtained from a Japanese male patient with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) arising in a cirrhotic liver that had supposedly developed from nonAnonB (NANB) chronic hepatitis. HCC-T exhibited a typical morphology of epithelial cells in culture. Population doubling time was 24 hours and HCC-T cells had characteristics of malignant cells demonstrated by the ability to grow in a soft agar medium and transplantability to nude mice. The histologic condition of the tumor transplanted to a nude mouse showed similarity to the original tumor. A chromosome analysis showed that there were ten identifiable marker chromosomes and sex chromosomes with its modal number of 64. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) production was demonstrated by direct immunofluorescence study, but albumin or hepatitis B surface antigen were not detectable. The integration of hepatitis B viral DNA was not demonstrable in the genome of HCC-T cells or the original hepatoma.