We are standardizing a protocol for studying cytotoxic drugs (mainly anticancer class of drugs) and we are using HepG2 cell line for that. My question is why only HepG2 cells while we can use HEK293 cell line also ?
Hello Priyansha Singh
To test the cytotoxicity of anti-cancer drugs, one always uses cancer cell lines. If the drug acts on a particular cancer type, then preferably the cancer cell line originating from the similar tissue is used. For instance, if the anti-cancer drug is designed to act on breast cancer, then it is better to make use of breast cancer cell lines like MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, etc. to test the cytotoxic effect of the drug on breast cancer cells.
HepG2 cells, a human hepatoma cell line, is used in a wide range of studies, from oncogenesis to cytotoxicity of substances on the liver. They are considered a good model to study in vitro xenobiotic metabolism and toxicity to the liver because they retain many of the specialized functions that characterize normal human hepatocytes.
On the other hand, HEK293 cells are not cancer cells. They are a type of immortalized cell line derived from human embryonic kidney cells widely used in research due to their ability to divide and grow indefinitely. You may use HEK293 or fibroblast cell line as a normal control to test the cytotoxic effect of the anti-cancer drug on normal cells, which would be an added data for your study.
Best.
Malcolm Nobre sir can you please explain more about the properties of HepG2 as to why we use them for mito-toxicity & cytotoxicity testing even for the drugs that do not fall into the category of anti-cancer drugs? Also, we have not incubated the cells in glucose-deprived media. I incubated them in EMEM media and subjected them to drug treatment the next day.
Malcolm Nobre also sir please let me know how are HepG2 cells more sensitive towards mitochondrial toxicity studies although i had not incubated them in glucose deprived media, i incubated them in EMEM media
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