Determination of WHV replication in the livers of chronically WHV-infected woodchucks.

<p>Southern blot analysis was performed on the DNA obtained from the liver samples collected post-mortem or by liver biopsy from chronically WHV-infected woodchucks at given time points (W – week). Woodchucks number 61786, 61789, 61792 and 61793 were treated with combination therapy. Woodchucks 61791 and 61795 were treated only with ETV and served as controls. Total amount of 10 µg of isolated DNA was electrophoresed into agarose gel and then transferred onto nylon membrane. WHV replicative intermediates were detected by hybridization with [³²P] labelled full-length WHV strain 8 genome as a probe. The arrows indicate the relaxed circular WHV DNA (RC DNA; 3,0 kb) and single-stranded WHV DNA (ssDNA; approximately 1,5 kb).