Construction of hepatitis B virus C gene retroviral vector and its expression in immortalized human peripheral blood B cell lines

Objective In order to study the biological significance of HBV/C gene variant in vitro. Methods Retroviral vector pXT1 was used to construct the HBV/C gene expression vector and the recombinant plasmid pXT1 HBV/C was used to transfect immortalized human peripheral blood B cell lines to express HBcAg steadily in the host cells.Results plasmid pXT1 HBV/C was detected positive by PCR as well as enzyme digestion with BglⅡ and XhoⅠ. Meanwhile, transfected cells was detected to contain HBV/C gene by PCR and HBcAg was expressed in 47.4% of the cells by means of flow cytometry. Conclusion Retroviral expression vector with HBV/C gene can transfect into eucaryotic cells effectively and express the goal gene steadily. The recombinant cells may be used in the systematic studies on the biological significance of HBV/C gene variant.