BACKGROUND:Human amniotic epithelial cells have some properties of stem cells, which can be induced to differentiate into corneal epithelial cells, but cannot be tracedin vitro. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the feasibility and infection efficiency of adenovirus vector carrying enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) into the human amniotic epithelial cells. METHODS:The adenovirus vectors carrying EGFP was transferred into human amniotic epithelial cells culturedin vitro. After cultured and amplified, the morphology difference between transfected and non-transfected human amniotic epithelial cels was observed. The transfected human amniotic epithelial cells were observed under fluorescence microscope, and the cell cycle and the expression rate of EGFP in transfected human amniotic epithelial cells were detected by flow cytometry. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:No obvious difference in the cell morphology was found between transfected human amniotic epithelial cells and normal human amniotic epithelial cells cultured in vitro. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that the EGFP positive rate was highest and reached up to 99.01% at 48 hours after transient transfection. The cell cycle of human amniotic epithelial cells transfected by the adenovirus vector was slowed a bit. To conclude, the adenovirus vector is a good medium of transfecting EGFP into human amniotic epithelial cells, and makes it more convenient to observe the further transformation of human amniotic epithelial celsin vitro.