HepG2 human hepatoma cells express multiple cytokine genes

Although cytokines are known to be involved in the regulation of a variety of hepatocellular functions, hepatocytes themselves are generally considered only targets but not producers of these important mediators. In order to investigate whether cells of hepatocellular linages are a potential source of various regulatory cytokines we have estimated the multiple cytokine gene expression in the culture of well differentiated human HepG2 hepatoma cells using RT-PCR. Our findings demonstrate that HepG2 cells express mRNAs for interferon gamma (IFN-gamma), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), oncostatin-M (OSM), intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1), interleukin 4 (IL-4), IL-5, IL-7, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12 and IL-6 receptor (IL-6R). At the same time the expression of IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-6, CD40 ligand and IL-2R genes was not detected. It was concluded that hepatocytes are potential producers of a variety of cytokines, some of them being able to regulate hepatocellular functions directly, while others are important regulators of leukocyte activity. Thus, on the one hand, hepatocytes may express autoregulatory cytokines and on the other hand, influence the functions of other liver cells like Kupffer, Ito or endothelial cells. Due to their large amount, liver parenchymal cells could be an important source of sytemically acting pro- and anti-inflammatory and other regulatory cytokines.