病毒學(xué)家開發(fā)了一種技術(shù)，能夠培養(yǎng)維持丙型肝炎病毒(HCV)，這就能夠促進(jìn)研發(fā)疫苗對抗這種病原的研究。

華盛頓大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院(Seattle, USA)的科研人員使用了一種新的人胎肝細(xì)胞培養(yǎng)系統(tǒng)。培養(yǎng)的肝細(xì)胞能夠支持HCV生長，既能夠被來自感染患者血液中的病毒感染，也能夠被全長體外轉(zhuǎn)錄的1a基因型HCV RNA轉(zhuǎn)染。

在感染或者轉(zhuǎn)染之后，來自這些細(xì)胞培養(yǎng)液能夠感染非感染肝細(xì)胞，從而證實了有活性病毒顆粒的生成。使用電子顯微鏡檢測這些培養(yǎng)得到的病毒顆粒，發(fā)現(xiàn)這些病毒具有預(yù)期的大小和HCV病毒顆粒的形狀。

這項研究發(fā)表在2007年2月出版的《美國病理學(xué)期刊》之上。
 
Cultured Fetal Hepatocytes Maintain Growth of Hepatitis C Virus
 
Virologists have developed a technique for maintaining the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in culture, which should promote research seeking to produce a vaccine against this dangerous pathogen.

Investigators at the University of Washington School of Medicine (Seattle, USA) employed a novel human fetal hepatocyte culture system. The cultured hepatocytes could support growth of HCV either by being infected with viruses taken from the blood of an infected individual or by being transfected with full-length in vitro-transcribed genotype 1a HCV RNA.

After infection or transfection, the production of active virus particles was demonstrated by the ability of media from these cells to infect naive hepatocytes. Virus particles obtained from the cultures were examined by electron microscopy and shown to possess the expected size and shape of HCV virus particles.

The study was published in the February 2007 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.