DIFFERENT CONSTITUTION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS POPULATION IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD MONONUCLEAR-CELLS AND PLASMA IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE-C CHRONIC LIVER-DISEASE

We searched for the presence of the plus or minus strand of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from t hree patients with chronic HCV infection using the strand-specific rev erse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method, To e xamine whether the HCV population of PBMCs differs from that of plasma , a sequence of the hypervariable region (HVR) in the E2/NS1 region wa s analyzed. All three patients had both plus and minus strands of HCV RNA in their PBMCs. Sequence study revealed that the HCV population in PBMCs was homogenous in all patients, while that in plasma was compos ed of two main clones, One of these had the same sequence as the clone s seen in PBMCs, except for one patient, Our results suggest that PBMC s represent one of the extrahepatic replication sites of HCV and that tissue tropism is expressed by some of the HCV population.