Viral dynamics of hepatitis C early after orthotopic liver transplantation: Evidence for rapid turnover of serum virions

Risk of HCV transmission after needlestick injury, and the efficacy of short-duration interferon administration to prevent HCV transmission to medical personnel

“…Negro et al 14 found that HCV RNA appeared in the liver 2 days after inoculation and became detectable in the serum as early as 3 days after inoculation in chimpanzees, indicating that a very early replicative phase for HCV exists in chimpanzees. With regard to investigation in humans, Fukumoto et al 15 reported the early dynamics of HCV replication after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) for decompensated HCV-induced cirrhosis patients. They showed a rapid decline in serum HCV RNA levels within the first 2 days after OLT and a steady increase in serum HCV RNA levels within 3 days after OLT, and attributed these findings to the remarkably short lifetime of serum HCV and a rapidly reinfected liver graft.…”

HBV and HCV Infections and Acute Rejection Differentially Modulate CD95 and CD28 Expression on Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes After Liver Transplantation

“…Universal recurrence of HCV and HBV after liver transplantation can be assumed based on previous results describing that viral antigens were present in the graft as early as day 3 post-OLT, affecting most grafts by day 20 [8], or that HCV viremia increases from the post-OLT day 3 to day 30 [32]. Considering that, our data demonstrate that CD95 protein expression is modulated early (day 4) after transplantation in peripheral T and B lymphocytes as well as in monocytes.…”

Human leukocyte antigen phenotypes and hepatitis C viral load

“…Mathematical modeling of viral dynamics reveals high turnover rates of pretreatment viral production and clearance (10 11 to 10 13 /day) and permits the estimation of in vivo half-lives of a few hours for HCV free virions (Zeuzem, 2001). It is also demonstrated that extrahepatic viral replication contributes little to the total virus pool in serum (Fukumoto et al, 1996). Thus, viral load in the serum may reflect the HCV replication in the liver.…”