Background: According to the World Health Organization, more than 250 million people worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus, and almost 800.000 patients die annually of mediated liver disorders. Therefore, adequate biological test systems are needed that could fully simulate the course of chronic hepatitis B virus infection, including in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods: In this study, we will assess the effectiveness of existing protocols for isolation and cultivation of primary cells derived from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in terms of the yield of viable cells and their ability to replicate the hepatitis B virus using isolation and cultivation methods for adhesive primary cells, flow cytometry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Another part of our study will be devoted to evaluating the effectiveness of hepatocellular carcinoma grafting methods to obtain patient-derived heterotopic and orthotopic xenograft mouse avatars using animal X-ray irradiation and surgery procedures and in vivo fluorescent signals visualization and measurements. Our study will be completed by histological methods.
Discussion: This will be the first extensive comparative study of the main modern methods and protocols for isolation and cultivation primary hepatocellular carcinoma cells and tumor engraftment to the mice. All protocols will be optimized and characterized using the: (1) efficiency of the method for isolation cells from removed hepatocellular carcinoma in terms of their quantity and viability; (2) efficiency of the primary cell cultivation protocol in terms of the rate of monolayer formation and hepatitis B virus replication; (3) efficiency of the grafting method in terms of the growth rate and the possibility of hepatitis B virus persistence and replication in mice. The most effective methods will be recommended for use in translational biomedical research.