RIGI and hepatocellular carcinoma: To determine whether unrelated HCV strains replicate to differing extents in B cells, we compared the full-length RNAs from the SB and JFH-1 strains, the latter of which is a well-established hepatotropic strain41, by in vitro transfection of either Huh7.5.1 cells (a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line with inactivating mutations in RIG-I) or Raji cells (a human B-lymphoid cell line) (Fig. 1).