Approximately 257 million people worldwide have been infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), and HBV infection can cause chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer. The lack of suitable and effective infection models has greatly limited research in HBV-related fields for a long time, and it is still not possible to discover a method to completely and effectively remove the HBV genome. We have constructed a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HLCZ01, that can support the complete life cycle of HBV. This model can mimic the long-term stable infection of HBV in the natural state and can replace primary human hepatocytes for the development of human liver chimeric mice. This model will be a powerful tool for research in the field of HBV.
Keywords: HBV persistence; animal model; cell culture model; kinetics of antigen; virion secretion.