title: Efficient replication of primary or culture hepatitis C virus isolates in human liver slices: a relevant ex vivo model of liver infection.
abstract: The development of human cultured hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication-permissive hepatocarcinoma cell lines has provided important new virological tools to study the mechanisms of HCV infection; however, this experimental model remains distantly related to physiological and pathological conditions. Here, we report the development of a new ex vivo model using human adult liver slices culture, demonstrating, for the first time, the ability of primary isolates to undergo de novo viral replication with the production of high-titer infectious virus as well as Japanese fulminant hepatitis type 1, H77/C3, and Con1/C3. This experimental model was employed to demonstrate HCV neutralization or HCV inhibition, in a dose-dependent manner, either by cluster of differentiation 81 or envelope protein 2-specific antibodies or convalescent serum from a recovered HCV patient or by antiviral drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This new ex vivo model represents a powerful tool for studying the viral life cycle and dynamics of virus spread in native tissue and also allows one to evaluate the efficacy of new antiviral drugs.
authors.affiliation: Equipe Cycle cellulaire, Régénération et Hépatopathies, Institut Cochin, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1016, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR8104, Université Paris Descartes (UMR S1016), Paris, France. sylvie.lagaye@inserm.fr
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lagaye
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Saunier
authors.forename: Michelina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nascimbeni
authors.forename: Jesintha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gaston
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bourdoncle
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hannoun
authors.forename: Pierre-Philippe
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Massault
authors.forename: Anaïs
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vallet-Pichard
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mallet
authors.forename: Stanislas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pol
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000502:physiology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000821:virology*; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000187:drug effects