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Virologie

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In vitro culture of hepatitis viruses Volume 4, issue 4, Juillet - Août 2000

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Laboratoire de recherche et développement, Établissement français du sang Pyrénées-Méditerranée, 240, avenue Émile-Jeanbrau, 34094 Montpellier Cedex 5

All human hepatitis viruses identified to date have demonstrated a peculiar resistance to propagation in tissue culture. An in vitro culture system for hepatitis A virus was developed after a laborious work that led to the isolation of tissue culture adapted strains. The progress of molecular biology led to the production in vitro of hepatitis B and D virions after transfection of stable permissive cell lines with an infectious DNA clone. The attempts made for in vitro propagation of the hepatitis E virus, whose discovery is the most recent, have been limited to primary hepatocyte cultures and with regard to in vitro culture of hepatitis C virus, it remains a challenge, even though the recent success in the construction of an infectious complementary DNA copy of the viral genome is quite promising. Overall, the development of practical in vitro culture systems for human hepatotropic viruses remains a priority in the viral hepatitis research field because the existing models, with the exception of that for hepatitis A virus, do not allow for the study of the entire viral replication cycle.