Assembly and release of infectious hepatitis C virus involving unusual organization of the secretory pathway

Figure 2 Transmission electron microscopy view of a hepatitis C virus compartment forming in baby hamster kidney-West Nile virus cells cells. BHK-WNV cells were transfected with a mix of HCVbp-expressing and P2B plasmids (8). A: IF analysis showing a compartment recognized by human serum HCV IgG (green) surrounded by mitochondria (red); nucleus is counterstained with DAPI (blue). The white square delimits an area similar to that displayed in the next panel; B: Thin section observed by transmission electron microscopy: White arrowheads: Electron-dense viral particles in large vesicles; black arrowheads: Nascent viral particles in traffic vesicles; white dotted line: Limit of mitochondria surrounding the compartment containing viral particles (cf. area within white square in previous panel); C: Left panel: Example of large vesicle that develops in the cytoplasm of permissive BHK-WNV cells upon expression of full-length HCV genome; Right panel: Magnification of viral particles. HCV: Hepatitis C virus; BHK-WNV: Baby hamster kidney-West Nile virus.