Development of cell culture system on the basis of adult stem cells for modeling of HBV infection

Efforts to elucidate the mechanisms by which HBV infects hepatocytes and causes liver damage have been hampered by the strict virus host range and a lack of suitable cell culture and animal models of HBV infection/replication. The present study has established and elucidated a novel HBV infection/replication in vitro model system based on adipose-derived stem cells differentiated into human hepatocyte-like cell line.