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World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2014; 20(11): 2777-2784
Published online Mar 21, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i11.2777
Role of macrophages and monocytes in hepatitis C virus infections
Dennis Revie, Syed Zaki Salahuddin
Dennis Revie, Department of Biology, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, United States
Syed Zaki Salahuddin, California Institute of Molecular Medicine, Ventura, CA 93003, United States
Author contributions: All the authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
Correspondence to: Dr. Dennis Revie, Professor, Department of Biology, California Lutheran University, 60 W Olsen Rd, MC 3700, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, United States. revie@clunet.edu
Telephone: +1-805-4933380 Fax: +1-805-4933392
Received: September 28, 2013
Revised: November 27, 2013
Accepted: January 6, 2014
Published online: March 21, 2014
Core Tip

Core tip: We review the evidence of infection of monocytes and macrophages by hepatitis C virus (HCV), both in vivo and in vitro. There are two innovative ideas: (1) the hypervariable region of HCV may vary due to host range of variants in addition to immune pressure; and (2) a novel model of the role of macrophages and monocytes in HCV infections is proposed that is consistent with current evidence.