Hepatitis E Virus: Isolation, Propagation, UNIT 15L.1and Quantification

摘要

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) predominantly causes acute liver disease in humansand is transmitted via the fecal-oral route. HEV infection in pregnant womencan result in grave consequences, with up to 30% fatality. The HEV strainsinfecting humans mainly belong to four genotypes. Genotypes 1 and 2 arerestricted to human infection, while genotypes 3 and 4 are zoonotic. HEVgenotype 3 (HEV-3) can cause both acute and chronic liver diseases. Severalcell lines (mainly hepatocytes) have been developed for HEV propagation andbiological study. However, HEV production in these cell lines is suboptimaland inefficient. Here, we present methods for the isolation, propagation, andquantification of HEV.