Hepatitis is an inflammatory disease of the liver induced by various viral, bacterial or parasitic infections, as well as toxic substances or drugs. Few informations are available on the interactions between hepatocytes and immune effector cells leading to the histopathological lesions and the onset of hepatitis. The murine hepatitis virus is a rare animal model for the study of the effects of immune disorders on the outcome of acute or chronic immune-mediated hepatitis, regarding host genetic sensitivity, its immunological status and the pathogenic properties of the virus strains. We will review here the specific characteristics of hepatic-resident immune cells as well as their role in the hepatitis process, as well as the specific immune disorders observed in human chronic viral hepatitis. We shall introduce a murine model for hepatitis: mouse hepatitis virus 3 (MHV3) infection as per its clinical features, host genetic sensitivity, and humoral and cellular changes observed in lymphoid organs, including the bone marrow and the thymus, favoring acute or chronic hepatitis. We will further present recent works reporting a virus-induced extrathymic maturation of hepatic-resident lymphocytes involved in the pathogenesis of MHV3 hepatitis. The use of various pathogenic variants of this virus, in either in vivo or in vitro studies, allows us to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the hepatic and systemic immune system functional disorders. Finally, we will describe how the pathogenic process of hepatitis is related to virus-controlled disturbances in the normal tolerance mechanisms under the control of Kupffer cells and T cell subpopulations, as linked to the role of the distinct hepatic TCR^intermediate LFA-l^high T lymphocyte subpopulation.