FIG. 7.

DCs propagated from HCV-positive, chronically infected chimpanzees are negative for HCV RNA. DCs prepared from uninfected and chronically infected chimpanzees were cultured in 10% plasma from an uninfected animal and frozen until the samples were analyzed by RT-PCR. Eighty nanograms of total RNA from DCs (∼40,000 to 50,000 cells) was used for the quantitative PCRs. The controls were serially diluted HCV cRNA (10⁶, 10⁵, 10⁴, 10³, 10², and 10¹ HCV RNA molecules). DC 1 to DC 4, RNA samples from chronically HCV-infected chimpanzee (CB0507) DCs; DC5, RNA sample from uninfected chimpanzee (A255B) DCs. Serially diluted cRNAs were spiked with total RNAs from DCs (CB0507), GAPDH RNA was measured as an internal standard (not shown), and H₂O was measured as a no-template control (NTC).