Huh7 is an
immortalised cell line and may be grown in the laboratory for research purposes. According to the web site huh7.com, it is "a well differentiated
hepatocyte
A hepatocyte is a cell of the main parenchymal tissue of the liver. Hepatocytes make up 80% of the liver's mass.
These cells are involved in:
* Protein synthesis
* Protein storage
* Transformation of carbohydrates
* Synthesis of cholesterol, ...
-derived
carcinoma cell line, originally taken from a
liver tumor
Liver tumors (also known as hepatic tumors) are abnormal growth of liver cells on or in the liver. Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. Liver tumors can be classified as beni ...
in a 57-year-old Japanese male in 1982." It is used extensively in
hepatitis C and
dengue
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...
virus research.
Huh7 cells have been instrumental in hepatitis C research. Until 2005, it was not possible to culture hepatitis C in the laboratory. The introduction of the Huh7 cell line permitted screening of
drug candidate
In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered.
Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or b ...
s against laboratory-cultured hepatitis C virus and permitted the development of new drugs against hepatitis C.
In February 2022 it has been reported that the Huh7 cells can at least parts of the code of the
mRNA
In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein.
mRNA is created during the ...
from the
BNT162b2 vaccine reverse transcribed into
DNA (the study doesn't proof that that DNA is integrated) via
intracellular transverse transcription.
References
{{reflist
External links
Cellosaurus entry for Huh7
Human cell lines