Serological and histological findings in infection and transmission of GBV-C/HGV to macaques

✍ Scribed by Cheng, Yun; Zhang, Wen-zhi; Li, Jin; Li, Bo-an; Zhao, Jin-min; Gao, Rong; Xin, Shao-jie; Mao, Pan-y; Cao, Yang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 179 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(200001)60:1<28::aid-jmv5>3.0.co;2-s

✦ Synopsis

Seven healthy macaques were inoculated with the GBV-C/HGV-RNA serum from a non-A-E hepatitis patient. The serology and pathology of the liver in the animals were observed. The results indicated that all inoculated animals were infected with a GBV-C/HGV-RNA viremia and had mildly abnormal alanine transaminase levels during the infectious period. The histology, immuno-histochemistry, and in situ hybridization in the liver tissues of the inoculated animals also showed that there was a very mild hepatitis with the positive antigenic expression and the genome of GBV-C/HGV-NS5 in hepatocytes. The pathological changes in the infected animals appeared to become normal whether or not GBV-C/HGV-RNA viremia persisted. There is a possibility that the mild virulence of the GBV-C/HGV to the host became harmless with time after inoculation. Infection and the transmission of the GBV-C/HGV virus in the macaques provides an appropriate animal model and new information about GBV-C/HGV infection in both humans and animals. It is possible that this virus is a mild and self-limited pathogenic agent to the hepatic cells of primates.