Establishment of an AFP-producing serum-independent culture cell line of human liver cancer and changes in protein synthesis associated with the absence of serum (First Part).

We succeeded in the separation of AFP-producing cell lines (HH2-1 and HH2-6) and a non-AFP-producing cell line (HH2-4) from cultures of human hepatocellular carcinoma and also succeeded in culturing the AFP-producing cell lines in a serum-independent medium (HHSF). The cells cultured in this medium showed no morphological difference from those cultured in the medium containing serum, and retained growth ability well. Although the protein synthesis of the cells was reduced in the serum-independent medium, they were still able to produce a variety of proteins such as transferrin (TF) and fibronectin (FN) in addition to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and albumin (ALB).