Replication and expression of recombinant hepatitis C virus in a human liver cancer cell line 7721 in vitro

Objective: To investigate whether recombinant hepatitis C virus (HCV) is capable of long-term replication in vivo in susceptible cells.

Methods: A human liver cell line 7721 was infected with recombinant HCV and after 72-hour incubation, the presence of HCV RNA in the cells and the supernatant were detected by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR. The expression of HCV antigen was detected by immunohistochemistry and observed by confocal laser scanning microscope.

Results: The plus and minus strands of HCV RNA were detected in the infected cells and the plus strand in the supernatant 72 h after infection. Expressions of HCV core antigens and E1 antigens were found within the cytoplasm.

Conclusions: The recombinant HCV can replicate in 7721 cell line in vitro and this HCV infection model can be useful for studying the mechanism of HCV infection and replication.