Rectification to the article "Involvement of phosphatidylserine and non-phospholipid components of the hepatitis B virus envelope in human annexin V binding and in HBV infection in vitro"

Identification of HepG2 variant cell lines by short tandem repeat (STR) analysis

In the past years, in our laboratory, several cell lines have been generated starting from a human liver (H7). Some of them have been used successfully in studies of the infection with and propagation of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses. Recently, several lines of evidence indicated that the origin of these cell lines was uncertain. Therefore, we now have determined the genetic characteristics of these cell lines in comparison to HepG2 cells received from ATCC and to HepG2 isolates grown at other laboratories. Quadruplex fluorescent short tandem repeat (STR) typing and karyotyping were performed. In addition, some biochemical characteristics of selected clones were studied. Genetically, all H7-derived cell lines were identical to HepG2 cells. However, some liver-specific functions varied between the different sub-cloned lines. The H7-derived cell lines that were generated proved to be sub-cloned lines of HepG2. The problem of cross-contamination during cloning of cell lines appears to be not uncommon. We found that two out of six HepG2 isolates obtained from other laboratories were not derived from the same individual as the original HepG2 cells. Therefore, STR typing should be applied as a rapid and sensitive technique to determine and monitor the origin of cell lines and to safeguard against contamination.

Hepatitis B virus vector carries a foreign gene into liver cells in vitro

Hepatitis B viruses (HBV) specifically target the liver, where they efficiently infect quiescent hepatocytes. Thus, HBV virus has potential to be used as vectors for liver-directed gene transfer. We constructed a new HBV-based vector system. It is composed of transfer vector for transferring a foreign gene, green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene, and a helper vector. When the transfer vector and the helper vector were cotransfected into HepG2 cells, the recombinant HBV (rHBV) particles were generated by trans-complementation between two vectors. The rHBV particles carrying the foreign gene were identified by the Southern blot assay. To test gene delivery and the transduction of the rHBV, we infected primary human hepatocytes and immortalized, HepG2 cells with rHBV in vitro. The results using fluorescence microscopy confirmed that the inserted GFP gene was successfully transferred and expressed both in primary human hepatocytes and HepG2 cells.