Hepatitis B virus hepatotropism is mediated by specific receptor recognition in the liver and not restricted to susceptible hosts
Alexa Schieck, Andreas Schulze, Caroline Gähler, Thomas Müller, Uwe Haberkorn, Alexander Alexandrov, Stephan Urban, Walter Mier – 4 January 2013 – The human hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes acute and chronic infections in humans and chimpanzees. HBV infects its hosts at minimal inoculation doses and replicates exclusively in hepatocytes. The viral determinants for the pronounced species specificity and the high efficacy to address hepatocytes in vivo are unknown.