A study of susceptibility of primary human Kupffer cells to hepatitis C virus

Background/Aims: Histological examination of a liver-biopsy from a patient with chronic hepatitis C shows activated Kupffer cells. In vitro infection of human Kupffer cells (KC) was performed to study their interaction with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods: KC, isolated by collagenase perfusion and centrifugal elutriation, were infected with various HCV positive sera. The presence of the viral genome was followed, at different times, quantitatively by a branched-DNA assay and qualitatively by reverse transcriptase-nested polymerase chain reaction. A strand-specific assay performed with the thermostable enzyme rTth was used to detect the synthesis of a negative replicative intermediate. Cytopathic effect was examined by electron microscopy. Production of cytokines and inducible nitric oxide synthase was evaluated in the supernatants. Results: Quantification of HCV-RNA showed that the level of viral RNA associated with KC after adsorption decreased rapidly. Genomic viral RNA disappeared within 5 days of infection. Negative-strand RNA was never detected in any of these experiments. No cytopathic effects could be detected at any time. KC did not produce inflammatory nor antiviral cytokines. Conclusions: Our results strongly suggest that primary cultures of KC are not permissive for HCV in vitro.