HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gheit, T. Articles by Chemin, I. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gheit, T. Articles by Chemin, I. Agricola Articles by Gheit, T. Articles by Chemin, I.

Experimental transfection of Macaca sylvanus with cloned human hepatitis B virus

Unité de recherche sur les virus des hépatites et pathologies associées, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale 271, 69424 Lyon Cedex 03, France¹
Centre d’immunologie, Faculté de Médecine et Pharmacie, BP 9154, Casablanca, Morocco²
Laboratoire d’anatomie et de cytologie pathologiques, Laboratoire Marcel Mérieux, 69365 Lyon Cedex 07, France³
bioMérieux, Marcy l’étoile 69280, France⁴

Author for correspondence: Isabelle Chemin. Fax +33 4 72 68 19 71. e-mail chemin{at}lyon151.inserm.fr

Due to the absence of easily accessible animal models for the study of hepatitis B virus (HBV), the possibility of using Macaca sylvanus, a monkey originating from Morocco, North Africa, was investigated. Three monkeys were intrahepatically inoculated with a replication-competent head-to-tail HBV DNA plasmid dimer construct. The HBV surface antigen and HBV DNA were detected prior to alanine aminotransferase elevation in the serum of two of three HBV-inoculated monkeys at day 2 post-transfection and persisted for several weeks. This indicates that transfected animals developed markers of HBV infection. In addition, electron microscopy of the serum 3 weeks post-transfection showed the presence of virus particles whose shape and size were similar to complete 42 nm HBV Dane particles. Histological examination of liver tissues also revealed pathological changes not observed in uninfected controls, which strongly suggested acute hepatitis. HBV DNA was also detected by PCR in these monkey livers. Taken together, these results indicate that HBV can successfully replicate in this model and that M. sylvanus could be a potentially useful new primate model for the study of HBV replication.