Detection of hepatitis C virus RNA in liver tissue: an overview

One of the approaches used to study the pathogenesis of hepatitis C virus-associated disease is to follow its replicative pattern in infected tissues and to establish anatomo-clinical correlations. As in other viral infections, the techniques used to study hepatitis C virus replication in tissues are the Northern gel analysis, the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, the in situ hybridization and the in situ-polymerase chain reaction. The replicative level of hepatitis C virus is, however, low, and the results reported using the above techniques are often discordant and difficult to reproduce, suggesting that both sensitivity and specificity are major issues. Thus, a critical step in the approach to the study of hepatitis C virus replication is the design of appropriate specificity experiments. New technologies, such as tissue microdissection coupled to the single-cell reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, may help to provide a definitive answer to the key questions concerning hepatitis C virus tropism and interaction with the host.