Abstract： Objective To investigate the effect of HBV on the expression of fibrosis-related factors in hepatic stellate cells(HSC)and its relation with liver fibrosis.Methods HSCs were co-cultured with HepG2 or HepG2.2.15 in vitro and HSCs cultured alone served as the control.The mRNA expression of matrix metalloproteinase(MMP)-2 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase(TIMP)-1 was detected by realtime PCR.The protein expression of MMP-2 and TIMp-1 was detected by Western-blot.Results Compared with the control and the HSCs co-cultured with HepG2,the expression of MMP-2 and TIMP-1 mRNA in HSCs co-cultured with HepG2.2.15 was increased remarkably and the most significant difference was found at 72 h(F=11.91,23.13;P=0.008,0.001);the expression of MMP-2 and TIMP-1 protein in HSCs co-cuhured with HepG2.2.15 was also increased remarkably and the most significant difference was found at 72 h(F=20.70,6.54;P=0.002,0.003)too.Conclusion The expression of fibrosis-related factors in HSCs increased significantly after co-cultured with HepG2.2.15,which suggests that HBV could promote liver fibrosis.