Hepatitis Delta Virus can persist and propagate through human cell division both in vitro and in vivo

Intrahepatic latency of the Delta antigen (HDAg) has been determined even months after liver transplantation and we recently showed that a latent HDV mono-infection can persist in humanized mice for at least 6 weeks in the absence of HBV before being converted to a productive HBV/HDV infection (Giersch et al. J. Hepatology 2014). Although these studies highlight the ability of HDV to persist in quiescent hepatocytes, little is known about the impact of cell proliferation on HDV persistence. Aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of HDV to survive human hepatocyte proliferation in vivo using HBV/HDV infecte…