I've used both cell lines before, the only problem I've experienced is that with Huh7, you really need to know where it came from (authenticity) as the only cell bank is in Japan - whereas HepG2 is available from ATCC or ECACC.

I've had varied results from Huh7s that have been gifted from different research groups and these cells have different characteristics (eg cell growth, after trypsination, transfection, uptake) when being grown. At least by using HepG2s you can get them from an authenticated source and so know that your experience in working with them should match other groups who have used the same cell bank.

For plasmid transfection, Huh7 is better.

For stable cell line, HepG2 is better, look at the DE19 cell line.

For viral infection, HepG2 with NTCP is good, Huh7 with NTCP still could not been infected.

I'm not expert in cell viral culture. Good luck.

Thank you

I do agree with He.

If you only consider HBV infectivity in HepG2 and Huh7 reconstituted with human NTCP, you'll see more HBcAg-expressing cells in HepG2-hNTCP compared to Huh7 format infected with the same mge.

For transient transfection, an advantage of Huh7 is transfection efficiency. For stable cells, Huh7 genome is not as stable as HepG2.

Both cells, however, are hepatoma cells.

Hi all,

I will both transduce and infect cells in my experiments.

Transduction with a bicistronic lentivirus vector (HIV-1/VSVg) with a CMV promoter, a small library of genes of inate immunity and a RFP tag. Then, i'll infect the cells with a human virus with tropism for liver cells.

Anyone have thoughts on best model for this experiment? I'm considering HepG2 or Huh7 and understand there are a couple of different Huh7s out there (Huh7.5 and Huh7.5.1)...

Or may just use a fibroblast model HT1080.

Will run RT-PCR for protein expression on both control and transduced cells. Also for virus replication.

Experiment is based on FACS cytometry where transduced/infected cells will be marked by conjugated antibodies and then quantified for RFP+/- and GFP(FITC)+/-.

Thanks so much for any thoughts on this as it might also be relevant rather than opening a new topic!

Hi,

As previously answered, HepG2 is more readily available to purchase than Huh7s. And as Bingqian and Wenhui stated, the former is better if looking at HBV infectivity as long as you express NTCP receptor.

I've not done any transduction with lentivirus on these cells, if you're able to get them as gifts from other groups or have both in your research group I'd work on both to see which gives the best result... though recently my preference is moving towards using HepG2 cell lines for most work involving HBV.

As for checking for protein expression - I think the easiest and fastest route for you would be to do basic IF to check for RFP and conjugated antibodies. If you get expression, then you can move onto looking at levels of expression via RT-PCR and cells transduced/infected by FACs.

All the best

Thanks John,

We got both cells in the lab and will test both..

I'm working with Orthobunyaviruses and ran experiments with HT1080 fibroblasts but was looking for another model and thought of the hepatocytes.

Got protein expression in the first ones..

Thanks