We discuss the notion of characteristic Lie algebra of a hyperbolic PDE. The integrability of a hyperbolic PDE is closely related to the properties of the corresponding characteristic Lie algebra χ. We establish two explicit isomorphisms:1) the first one is between the characteristic Lie algebra χ(sinh u) of the sinh-Gordon equation uxy = sinh u and the non-negative part L(sl(2, C)) ≥0 of the loop algebra of sl(2, C) that corresponds to the Kac-Moody algebra A(1) 12) the second isomorphism is for the Tzitzeica equation uxy = e u +e −2uwhere L(sl(3, C), µ) = j∈Z g j(mod 2) ⊗ t j is the twisted loop algebra of the simple Lie algebra sl(3, C) that corresponds to the Kac-Moody algebra A(2) 2 . Hence the Lie algebras χ(sinh u) and χ(e u +e −2u ) are slowly linearly growing Lie algebras with average growth rates 3 2 and 4 3 respectively.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. 17B80, 17B67, 35B06.