Does the Hep C virus replicate in stored blood?
The answer’s no, for a couple of reasons. First recall that viruses can’t do anything by themselves. They require cells, and the cellular machinery, to replicate. They’re obligate parasites – they require the “factories” of the cell to create more copies of themselves. Blood contains cells, but most red cells don’t have any of the organelles (nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi, etc) that the virus needs to be able to replicate. That leaves white blood cells. A quick look at PubMed didn’t reveal whether or not the Hep C virus replicates in leukocytes. We know it replicates in liver cells. If it could replicate in leukocytes (which I doubt), maybe it could produce a few more viruses. But there are so few leukocytes in a blood sample – just a few thousand per microliter, I think – that it’s not going to amount to a hill of beans. Second, blood is stored at cold conditions – usually frozen, if for 15 years – at which all life processes cease. No cellular activity takes place in freezing
