Abstract
It has been known that duct hepatitis B virus (DHBV), which is transmitted in vivo or in vitro, proliferated in the primary hepatocyte cultures of ducklings. Following findings were obtained from the present experiment, utilizing primary hepatocyte cultures; first, the hepatocyte cultures were maintained for one month and DHBV continued to multiply steadily through this period both in vivo and in vitro transmission; second, the successful in vitro infection of DHBV was recognized up to 21 days so far examined, where DHBcAg-positive cells were approximately 10% irrespective to the time of transmission. Thus DHBV was able to infect the primary cultured hepatocytes even when they exhibited spindle shape alternation; third, there was no remarkable difference in the multiplication of DHBV on individual infected cell level between in vivo and in vitro transmission; fourth, the administration of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and N6-2'-0-dibutyryl-adenosine3': 5'-cyclic monophosphate (dbc-AMP) prevented the cultured cells from changing to a spindle shape to some extent, but did not affect the infection and proliferation of DHBV.
