AIM:To investigate the characteristics of newly established four hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (SNU-739, SNU-761, SNU-878 and SNU-886) from Korean hepatocellular cancer patients.METHODS:Morphologic and genetic studies were done.RESULTS:All four lines grew as a monolayer with an adherent pattern, and their doubling times ranged from 20 to 29 hours. The viability rate was relatively high (88%-94%).Neither mycoplasmal nor bacterial contamination was present.The lines showed different patterns in fingerprinting analysis. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA was integrated in the genomes of all four lines, and in all of them HBx,HBc and HBs transcripts were detected by reverse transcriptase-PCR methods. Among the three cell lines used as control (Hep 3B, SK Hep1 and Hep G2),only Hep 3B showed HBx expression, and this line was used as a HBV integrated control.The RNA of albumin was detected in three lines (SNU-761, SNU-878 and SNU-886), that of transferrin in two lines (SNU-878, SNU-886), and that of IGF-II was detected in none of the cell lines.CONCLUSION:These well characterized cell lines may be very useful for studying the biology of hepatocellular carcinoma in association with the hepatitis Bvirus.