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Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Modeling Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Non-Hepatic 293T-NE-3NRs Cells
Published on: June 5, 2020
[The studies of hepatitis B virus X gene induces oval cell malignant transformation]
Yan-jun Wang1, Hui-fang Liang, Xiao-ping Chen
1Hepatic Surgery Center, Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
Objective:
To find out the mechanisms of HBx gene inducing oval cell malignant transformation into hepatoma carcinoma cell.
Methods:
The changes of morphology, cell cycle, differentiated markers, c-myc and TGF-alpha in pEGFP-HBx oval cells strain, which stably expressed HBx gene, were studied by inversion phase contrast microscope and transmission electron microscopy, flow cytometry, periodic acid-schiff (PAS) staining, soft agar growth assay, real-time PCR, immunocytochemistry. pEGFP-oval cells and LE/6 oval cells were used as control groups.
Results:
(1) The pEGFP-HBx oval cells showed bigger in size with malformed nucleus as compared with control groups. (2) Flow cytometry showed that, in contrast with the control groups, the proportion of pEGFP-HBx oval cells arrested in G0/G1 phase decreased but in S or G2/M phase rose. Moreover, the population of aneuploid cells increased obviously. (3) PAS staining showed that there were many glycogen granules in the cytoplasm of pEGFP-HBx oval cell. (4) The pEGFP-HBx oval cell formed colonies in the soft agar. (5) Compared with the control groups, the expression of HNF-4 alpha, AFP, c-myc and TGF-alpha rose obviously, whereas the expression of CK-7 and CK-19 decreased. And the expression of cps1 mRNA was not in the extent of detection.
Conclusions:
The HBx gene can provoke abnormal differentiation of oval cell and induce oval cell malignant transformation.
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