Proteomic analysis of primary duck hepatocytes infected with duck hepatitis B virus

The effects of hepadnavirus infection on hepatocytes were investigated in DHBV infected PDHs by the 2-DE analysis. Proteomic profile of PDHs infected with DHBV were analyzed at 24, 72 and 120 h post-infection by comparing with uninfected PDHs, and 75 differentially expressed protein spots were revealed by 2-DE analysis. Among the selected protein spots, 51 spots were identified corresponding to 42 proteins by MS/MS analysis; most of them were matched to orthologous proteins of Gallus gallus, Anas platyrhynchos or other avian species, including alpha-enolase, lamin A, aconitase 2, cofilin-2 and annexin A2, etc. The down-regulated expression of beta-actin and annexin A2 was confirmed by Western blot analysis, and potential roles of some differentially expressed proteins in the virus-infected cells have been discussed.Differentially expressed proteins of DHBV infected PDHs revealed by 2-DE, are involved in carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, stress responses and cytoskeleton processes etc, providing the insight to understanding of interactions between hepadnavirus and hepatocytes and molecular mechanisms of hepadnavirus pathogenesis.The HBV, prototype of the Hepadnaviridae family, is a noncytopathic hepatotropic DNA virus replicating via reverse transcription [1]. More than 350 million individuals are HBV carriers worldwide and over one-third of them develop serious liver diseases such as chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma [2]. Major obstacles in HBV research have been the inability of the virus to infect cells in vitro and lack of adequate animal models for HBV infection, though primary human hepatocytes and HepaRG cell line have been used to study HBV infection [3]. Human primary hepatocytes and HepaRG cells can support HBV life cycle, but have limitations in accessibility, reproducibility and low level of HBV replication, and a large amount of input virus was needed to infect low proportion of cells [4-6]. DHBV and woodchuc