Duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) particles produced by transient expression of DHBV DNA in a human hepatoma cell line are infectious in vitro.

ABSTRACT

Transfection of the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HuH7 with a plasmid containing a tandem copy of the duck hepatitis B virus DNA sequence resulted in transient replication of the virus. Viral particles secreted by transfected HuH7 cells exhibited physical properties similar to those of serum-derived duck hepatitis B virus and were infectious in primary duck hepatocyte cultures.