A Primary Human Liver Cell Culture Model for Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses

Viral hemorrhagic fevers affect liver functions such as important metabolic processes and the replacement of new blood cells, coagulation factors, and growth factors. Typically, multi-organ diseases such as viral hemorrhagic fevers are studied in an organism, but it is also possible to derive information about the molecular events involved in disease processes by focusing on liver cell culture. Here we describe a multi-cell culture system that is capable of replicating the arenavirus LCMV-WE, a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever in primates, as a model for liver infection by a hemorrhagic fever virus.