【Animal Modeling】-Hepatitis E Virus Rhesus Monkey Model

  [Modeling mechanism] Hepatitis E is mainly transmitted through the fecal-oral route (digestive tract), and other routes include blood transmission and vertical transmission. Taking advantage of the transmission characteristics of hepatitis E, the method of intravenously injecting fresh stool filtrate from hepatitis E patients into animals induces a disease process similar to that of humans after natural infection with hepatitis E virus.

  [Modeling method] Take a stool sample from a patient with hepatitis E in the acute phase, make a 10% suspension with 0.1mol/L PBS buffer, centrifuge and filter the bacteria, and inject rhesus monkeys through the hind limb at a dose of 1.5ml/head. (rhesus monkey).

  [Characteristics of the model] On the 28th day after infection, ALT began to rise and reached a peak in 1 week. On the 18th to 28th day, IgG was positive, and it returned to normal after 120 days. Viremia appeared on 14 to 32 days. Stool detoxification from 7 to 55 days after infection, virus-like particles of 27 to 34 nm were observed in the stool sample under electron microscope. Electron microscopic observation of ultrathin liver tissue sections revealed that there were virus-like particles the size of hepatitis E virus in the liver cytoplasm, and clusters of virus particles could be seen in the fragments of lysed necrotic gallbladder epithelial cells. Pathological sections of the liver showed loose and necrotic liver parenchyma, focal infiltration of a large number of lymphocytes and a small amount of neutrophils, destruction of the central vein wall, lymphocyte infiltration, and inflammatory cell infiltration in the portal area.

  [Model Evaluation and Application] Among the non-human primate models of hepatitis E, my country generally uses rhesus monkeys as animal models, and rhesus hepatitis E animal models can be used for clinical diagnosis, disease prevention, and vaccine development.