Titration of recombinant woodchuck hepatitis virus DNA in adult woodchucks [Le titrage de l'ADN du virus recombinant de l'hépatite de la marmotte des marmottes adultes].

Résumé

In vivo transfection of Eastern woodchucks (Marmota monax) with recombinant woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA is effective in inducing virus infection for the study of replication, pathogenicity, and oncogenicity of wild-type and mutated WHV. The one drawback to this procedure is the need for preparation of large amounts of WHV DNA. Reduction of the amount of WHV DNA in the transfection protocol necessary to induce infection would save considerable time and resources. Therefore, we conducted a titration of WHV DNA, ranging from 50 pg to 50 pg of DNA, in adult woodchucks to determine the minimum infectious dose of recombinant WHV DNA. As little as 50 ng of transfected WHV DNA induced productive infection in adult woodchucks. Thus, transfection with large amounts of recombinant WHV DNA appears to be unnecessary.