Abstract: Objective To investigate whether recombinant hepatitis C virus (HCV) is capable of long-term replication in vivo in susceptible cells. Methods A human liver cell line 7721 was infected with recombinant HCV and after 72-hour incubation, the presence of HCV RNA in the cells and the supernatant were detected by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR. The expression of HCV antigen was detected by immunohistochemistry and observed by confocal laser scanning microscope. Results The plus and minus strands of HCV RNA were detected in the infected cells and the plus strand in the supernatant 72 h after infection. Expressions of HCV core antigens and E1 antigens were found within the cytoplasm. Conclusions The recombinant HCV can replicate in 7721 cell line in vitro and this HCV infection model can be useful for studying the mechanism of HCV infection and replication.