Abstract: Objective： To isolate the human amniotic epithelial cells and to investigate the inhibition of the isolated?-cells to Lymphocyte. Methods： Human amniotic epithelial cells were isolated from amnion by using trypsin/EDTA. Ultrastructures of the isolated cells were observed by using TEM. Immunofluorescence was used for detecting CK18+ cells, and RT?-PCR was performed to detect the gene expression of CDH1, claudin 3 and claudin 4. MTT was used to identify the proliferation of cells after co?-culture for 96 h in vitro. Results： The TEM showed that these isolated cells were pure epithelial cells with microvillus. The isolated?-cells stained positive for CK18 and expressed many epithelial cell-related genes including CDH1, claudin 3 and claudin 4. The OD values increased with the decreasing density of amnion derived cells from 0.074±0.022 to 0.019±0.011. Conclusions：The human amniotic epithelial cells exhibit low immunogenicity.

Key words: Cell culture techniques, Epithelial cells, Amnion, Cells, cultured, Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, Fluoroimmunoassay