REVIEW ARTICLE


Effects of Retinoic Acid on Proliferation and Differentiation of HepG2 Cells



Michelle R. Burley1, 3, Charles M. Roth*, 1, 2, 3
1 Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
2 Department of Biomedical Engineering
3 Graduate Program in Molecular BioSciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA


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Creative Commons License
© 2007 Burley and Roth

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, 599 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA; Tel: 732-445-4500x6205; Fax: 732-445-3753; E-mail: cmroth@rci.rutgers.edu


Abstract

Hepatoma cell lines have characteristics derived from both their hepatic lineage and their transformation. We examined the potential of retinoic acid to enhance the function of a hepatoma cell line, HepG2, under conditions of reduced serum as are desired for bioreactor cultivation. We found that retinoic acid drastically slows the growth of HepG2 cells and induces a more spread morphology. Retinoic acid also augments the differentiated function of the cells, as measured by albumin and urea secretion rates. Expression levels of a panel of liver-enriched transcription factor were increased from retinoic acid exposure. Overall, we demonstrate that retinoic acid has significant effects on HepG2 growth and differentiated function. These results have implications for the use of retinoic acid both as a chemotherapeutic agent and as a medium component for cells of hepatic origin.

Keywords: Hepatocyte culture, differentiated function, liver-enriched transcription factors, gene expression.