Panel 49. The Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a very unique virus, whose originality lies in its close relationship with lipids. Cells can store lipid reserves in the form of spherical organelles called “lipid droplets”. Depending on the needs of the cell, lipid reserves can be used or on the contrary increase, which influences the number and the size of the lipid droplets in the cell. This is particularly the case in liver cells (hepatic cells) in which the number of lipid droplets can fl uctuate depending on the context (for example, after a fat-rich meal, their number and size increases).