[Attempts to culture hepatitis B virus on human fetal hepatocytes: preliminary results]

Foetal human hepatocytes have been maintained in prolonged culture and inoculated with two pools of HBs Ag positive sera. These two pools differed from each other by the presence or the absence of Dane particles. The cultures were examined during 8 weeks. HBs Ag did not appear in the culture medium. However, it may be revealed inconstantly and fugaciously by ultasonic lysis of cells infected by sera containing Dane particles. In the cell debris, 27 nm nucleocapsides of HBc specificity are observed. They were not able to transmit the infection. The neutralization of this production can be obtained by sera with anti-HBs activity.