%0 Journal Article %A Kimura, Takashi %A Imamura, Michio %A Hiraga, Nobuhiko %A Hatakeyama, Tsuyoshi %A Miki, Daiki %A Noguchi, Chiemi %A Mori, Nami %A Tsuge, Masataka %A Takahashi, Shoichi %A Fujimoto, Yoshifumi %A Iwao, Eiji %A Ochi, Hidenori %A Abe, Hiromi %A Maekawa, Toshiro %A Arataki, Keiko %A Tateno, Chise %A Yoshizato, Katsutoshi %A Wakita, Takaji %A Okamoto, Toru %A Matsuura, Yoshiharu %A Chayama, Kazuaki %T Establishment of an infectious genotype 1b hepatitis C virus clone in human hepatocyte chimeric mice %D 2008 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 89 %N 9 %P 2108-2113 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.83658-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X The establishment of clonal infection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a small-animal model is important for the analysis of HCV virology. A previous study developed models of molecularly cloned genotype 1a and 2a HCV infection using human hepatocyte-transplanted chimeric mice. This study developed a new model of molecularly cloned genotype 1b HCV infection. A full-length genotype 1b HCV genome, HCV-KT9, was cloned from a serum sample from a patient with severe acute hepatitis. The chimeric mice were inoculated intrahepatically with in vitro-transcribed HCV-KT9 RNA. Inoculated mice developed viraemia at 2 weeks post-infection, and this persisted for more than 6 weeks. Passage experiments indicated that the sera of these mice contained infectious HCV. Interestingly, a similar clone, HCV-KT1, in which the poly(U/UC) tract was 29 nt shorter than in HCV-KT9, showed poorer in vivo infectivity and replication ability. An in vitro study showed that no virus was produced in the culture medium from HCV-KT9-transfected cells. In conclusion, this study developed a genetically engineered genotype 1b HCV-infected mouse. This mouse model will be useful for the study of HCV virology, particularly the mechanism underlying the variable resistance of HCV genotypes to interferon therapy. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.83658-0