AIM: To observe the ability of dendritic cells (DC) vaccine transfected with human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) total RNA induce specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte(CTL) response in vitro. METHODS: DCs generated from HCC patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were incubated with recombinant human granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulationg factor (GM-CSF) and human interleukin (IL-4). Tumor total RNA was isolated from Hep G-2 cells and HCC cells. DCs transfected with tumor total RNA were used to induce specific CTL proliferation. Specific cytotoxicity was measured using MTT method. RESULTS: DC transfected with HepG-2 cell RNA and HCC RNA exhibited increased expression of CD83, CD86 and HLA-DR. The CTL from DCs transfected with HepG-2 cell RNA killed 5.84%, 14.26%, 25.19%, or 35.78% of HepG-2 cells, and 5.26%, 11.67%, 14.68%, or 23.24% of HCC cells, respectively, at an E/T ratio of 2.5, 5, 10, or 20. The CTL from DCs transfected with HCC cells RNA killed 4.65%, 12.23%, 15.61%, or 19.15% of HepG-2 cells, and 7.20%, 12.83%, 27.21%, or 31.15% of HCC cells,respectively, at an E/T ratio of 2.5, 5, 10, and 20. These CTL did not kill allogeneic malignant cells as human gastric carcinoma cells SGC-7901. CONCLUSION: DC transfected with tumor-derived total RNA could induce specific antitumor immune CTL response. These results suggest that CTL generation is applicable to adoptive immunotherapy of HCC.