Established from the tumor tissue of an 8-year-old black boy in 1976.The cells contain a 2.3 kb integrated hepatitis B virus genome fragment. However there is currently no evidence that this cell line produces infectious Hepatitis B virus. Cells were described to produce a variety of proteins, e.g. alpha-fetoprotein, albumin, transferrin, alpha2-macroglobulin, alpha1-antitrypsin, haptoglobin and others.