A novel tetracycline regulation expression system was used to regulate the expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and hepatitis B virus precore protein in the mammalian cell lines with lipofectAMINE. Flow cytometry assays showed that application of the system resulted in about 18-fold induction of EGFP expression in CHO cell lines and 5-fold induction in SSMC-7721 cells and about 2-fold in the HEK293 cells. Furthermore, the effective use of this system for the controlled expression of HBV precore protein gene in hepatocellular carcinoma cells was tested.