National Rodent Laboratory Animal Resources Center, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China.
Division of HIV/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China.
Viruses. 2022 Jun 9;14(6):1252. doi: 10.3390/v14061252.
Chronic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is frequently reported in immunocompromised patients, but has also been increasingly reported in non-immunocompromised individuals. We characterized the course of chronic HEV infection in immunocompetent rabbits. In two independent experiments, 40 specific-pathogen-free rabbits were infected with a rabbit HEV genotype 3 strain in serial diluted titers (108 to 104 copies/mL). Serum and fecal samples were collected weekly and were tested for HEV RNA, antigen, anti-HEV and liver enzymes. Rabbits that spontaneously cleared the infection before 10 weeks post-inoculation (wpi) were kept to the end of the study as recovery control. Liver tissues were collected from HEV-infected rabbits at 5, 10 and 26 wpi for histopathological analysis. Nineteen rabbits (47.5%) developed chronic HEV infection with persistent viraemia and fecal HEV shedding for >6 months. Seroconversion to anti-HEV was observed in 84.2% (16/19) of the chronically infected rabbits. Serum levels of aminotransferase were persistently elevated in most of the rabbits. Characterizations of chronic HEV infection in immunocompetent settings could be recapitulated in rabbits, which can serve as a valuable tool for future studies on pathogenesis.
慢性戊型肝炎病毒 (HEV) 感染在免疫功能低下的患者中经常被报道，但在非免疫功能低下的个体中也越来越多地被报道。我们描述了免疫功能正常的兔子慢性 HEV 感染的病程。在两项独立的实验中，40 只特定病原体兔感染了兔 HEV 基因型 3 株，以连续稀释的滴度（108 至 104 拷贝/ml）。每周采集血清和粪便样本，并检测 HEV RNA、抗原、抗-HEV 和肝酶。在接种后 10 周（wpi）前自发清除感染的兔子作为恢复对照组，一直保留到研究结束。在 5、10 和 26 wpi 时从感染 HEV 的兔子中采集肝组织进行组织病理学分析。19 只兔子（47.5%）发生慢性 HEV 感染，持续病毒血症和粪便 HEV 脱落>6 个月。16/19（84.2%）慢性感染的兔子发生抗-HEV 血清转换。大多数兔子的转氨酶血清水平持续升高。免疫功能正常的兔子中慢性 HEV 感染的特征可以重现，这可以作为未来发病机制研究的有价值的工具。
