Cell Culture of Sporadic Hepatitis E Virus in China

The isolation and identification of the 87A strain of epidemic hepatitis E virus (HEV) by means of cell culturing have been described previously. This paper reports the successful isolation of a sporadic HEV strain (G93-2) in human lung carcinoma cell (A549) cultures. The etiology, molecular and biological properties, and serological relationship of this new strain to other, epidemic HEV strains are described. The propagation of both sporadic and epidemic HEV strains in a cell culture system will facilitate vaccine research.