Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 26, 2026
09:02
Modeling Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Non-Hepatic 293T-NE-3NRs Cells
Published on: June 5, 2020
6.8K
Modeling host interactions with hepatitis B virus using primary and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived
Amir Shlomai1, Robert E Schwartz2, Vyas Ramanan3
1Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease, Center for the Study of Hepatitis C, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065;
Summary
New cell culture models, micropatterned cocultures (MPCCs) and iHeps, support Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. These systems facilitate studying HBV-host interactions and developing new antiviral therapies.
Area of Science:
- Hepatology
- Virology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes chronic infection in 400 million people globally, leading to liver disease and cancer.
- Effective research into HBV requires in vitro models that support human hepatocyte infection and mimic virus-host interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate novel in vitro cell culture systems for studying Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and host interactions.
- To enhance HBV infection models by modulating the innate immune response.
Main Methods:
- Utilized micropatterned cocultures of primary human hepatocytes with stromal cells (MPCCs) to model HBV infection.
- Employed inducible pluripotent stem cells differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells (iHeps) as a renewable HBV infection model.
- Investigated the enhancement of HBV infection by blocking interferon-stimulated gene induction in both MPCCs and iHeps.
Main Results:
- MPCCs reliably supported prolonged, productive HBV infection.
- HBV infection in MPCCs and iHeps was enhanced by inhibiting innate immune responses (IFN-stimulated genes).
- iHeps demonstrated distinct differentiation stages correlating with HBV transcriptional activity and permissiveness to infection.
Conclusions:
- MPCCs and iHeps provide facile and renewable platforms for studying HBV biology, virus-host interactions, and antiviral interventions.
- These models highlight the role of innate immunity in HBV permissiveness and offer a means to assess hepatocyte differentiation.
- The developed systems are valuable for interrogating host genetic susceptibility to HBV infection.
Related Concept Videos
01:13Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
22.9K
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that divide and produce different types of cells. Ordinarily, cells that have differentiated into a specific cell type are post-mitotic—that is, they no longer divide. However, scientists have found a way to reprogram these mature cells so that they “de-differentiate” and return to an unspecialized, proliferative state. These cells are also pluripotent like embryonic stem cells—able to produce all cell types—and are therefore...
22.9K
01:21EPS and iPS Cells in Disease Research
3.2K
Embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells are excellent models for disease research because of their ability to self-renew and differentiate into most cell types. Somatic cells from a patient are isolated and reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs. These iPSCs are later differentiated into the desired cell type, which mirrors the diseased cell of the patient. In this way, disease models have been created for investigating diseases such as Down syndrome, type I diabetes,...
3.2K