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Updated: Mar 7, 2026
Induction of an Inflammatory Response in Primary Hepatocyte Cultures from Mice
Published on: March 10, 2017
HepG2 cells stimulated by THP-1-conditioned medium: a potential in vitro model of systemic inflammation-induced
Veronika Vyletelová1, Marek Bohunčák1, Jana Hricovíniová1
1Department of Cell and Molecular Biology of Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, Bratislava, 83232, Slovakia.
Background:
Chronic inflammatory diseases are associated with qualitative and quantitative changes in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, including high density lipoproteins (HDLs), increasing patients´ susceptibility to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular mortality. Given the liver's central role in lipoprotein metabolism and systemic inflammation, we aimed to develop and investigate an in vitro model of inflammation-induced hepatic metabolic changes.
Methods And Results:
To better approximate in vivo conditions, where systemic inflammation exposes the liver to a complex environment rich in cytokines and inflammatory mediators, we exposed human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells to conditioned media (CM) from THP-1-derived macrophages using phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The effect of CM on mRNA expression in HepG2 was tested by quantitative real-time PCR or protein expression by Western blot analysis. Even short-term exposure to CM (2-4 h) led to a significant change in the mRNA expression of inflammatory genes and several transcription factors (e.g., TNF-α, NF-κB, PPARα, and LRH-1). This change was accompanied by alternations in the expression of lipoprotein-associated genes at different time points (e.g. SAA, LDLr, ApoA1, ABCA1, PON1, and PCSK9). After 24 h of exposure, no effect on HepG2 viability was observed.
Conclusion:
In our model, we observed several significant inflammation-induced changes in hepatic lipoprotein metabolism, making it a valuable in vitro system for further mechanistic studies.
