Replication of hepatitis C virus in ascitic mononuclear cells with development of distinct viral quasispecies

To investigate whether distinct compositions of viral quasispecies develope d in the ascitic fluid of patients with late-stage chronic hepatitis C viru s (HCV) infection, samples of various origins, including ascitic fluid and ascitic mononuclear cells (AMCs), were analyzed by the method of single-str and conformation polymorphism (SSCP). Subsequently, the major species were isolated, sequenced, and subjected to phylogenetic analysis. Of 42 patients analyzed, HCV-RNA was detectable in the AMCs of 25 patients. SSCP analysis indicated that the compositions of viral quasispecies among samples of dif ferent origins were markedly different in this group of patients. Phylogene tic analysis revealed that the ascitic-fluid-derived clones were most close ly related to the AMC-derived clones. Minus-strand HCV-RNA was detectable i n 5 of them. Our data suggest that HCV can replicate in the AMCs of patient s with late-stage chronic HCV, which results in the development of distinct viral quasispecies.