Hepatitis C virus infection of mouse hepatoma cell expressing human CD81 or LDLR

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a serious public health problem worldwide. Development of new therapeutics against HCV has been hampered by the lack of a small-animal model. Until now, it has been unclear which host factors influence the HCV infection. It was known that human CD81 (hCD81) or low-density lipoprotein receptor (hLDLR), the putative HCV receptors, induce concentration of viral particles on the cell surface. In this study, recombinant plasmids containing hCD81 or hLDLR genes were transfected to mouse hepatoma Hepa 1-6 cells and transgenic cell lines expressing hCD81 (hCD81/1-6 cell line) or hLDLR (hLDLR/1-6 cell line) on their surface have been established. HCV infection of these cell lines showed that the virus was bound, entered the cell, and replicated inside the cell. This finding is essential for the development of mouse model for the study of HCV replication in vivo.