Human hepatitis B virus and hepatocellular carcinoma. I. Experimental infection of tree shrews with hepatitis B virus.
Tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinenesis) can be experimentally infected with human hepatitis B virus (HBV) by inoculation with human serum positive for HBV, the experimental infection rate being 55.21%. Successive infections have been passed through five generations among the tree shrews inoculated with HBV-positive sera from the infected animals, the average infection rate being 94.0%. The experimental infection of tree shrews with HBV may be prevented by immunization with hepatitis B vaccine, the protection rate being 88.89%. Standard serum containing HBV at 10(8) CID (chimpanzee infection dose)/ml, was diluted 10(-6), 10(-7), 10(-8), 10(-9), and 10(-10) and produced infection rates of 80.0%, 88.8%, 66.7%, 55.6% and 42.9% respectively. Thus the CID50 in tree shrews may reach a dilution of 10(-9), which shows that tree shrews are sensitive to HBV infection. These results successfully establish tree shrews as a reliable and useful animal model for research on HBV infection and its relation to hepatocarcinogenesis.
Yan
R Q
RQ
Department of Pathology, Guangxi Institute for Research on Cancer, Nanning, P. R. China.
Su
J J
JJ
Huang
D R
DR
Gan
Y C
YC
Yang
C
C
Huang
G H
GH
D000818:Animals; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology* / Q000821:virology; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D014417:Tupaia
D004279:DNA, Viral; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens