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Persistent viremia after recovery from self-limited acute hepatitis B
- Source :
- Hepatology. 27:1377-1382
- Publication Year :
- 1998
- Publisher :
- Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 1998.
-
Abstract
- To define the duration of viremia in the course of acute hepatitis B, we semiquantitatively determined the levels of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in the sera, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with Southern blotting, of non-immunocompromised patients with self-limited acute hepatitis B. In the sera of 10 of 11 patients, HBV DNA, which was presumably coated with viral proteins, was detected for a long period after recovery, even at the final observation times, which ranged from 6 to 19 months after disease onset. To characterize the mode of HBV that was present in serum, we immunoprecipitated immune complexes in sera by the addition of anti-human immunoglobulin G (IgG) and determined the levels of HBV DNA separately in the supernatants and pellets. In the acute phase of hepatitis B, high levels of HBV DNA were detected both in the supernatants and pellets at comparative levels. After the convalescent phase, the amount of HBV DNA in the supernatant decreased with respect to that in the pellets. It is notable that, in most cases, serum HBV persisted as a form of immune complex even after the seroconversion to antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs). These data suggest that the replication of HBV may persist in some organs, most likely in the liver or peripheral blood cells, for a long period after recovery from acute hepatitis B, and the data indicate the possible transmission of HBV from organ transplantation donors who exhibit serological markers of past infection only.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Hepatitis B virus
Time Factors
Viremia
Antigen-Antibody Complex
medicine.disease_cause
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Immunoglobulin G
Orthohepadnavirus
medicine
Humans
Seroconversion
Hepatology
biology
virus diseases
Middle Aged
Hepatitis B
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Virology
digestive system diseases
Hepadnaviridae
Acute Disease
DNA, Viral
Immunology
biology.protein
Female
Antibody
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15273350 and 02709139
- Volume :
- 27
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Hepatology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....bd88ad17bbb9241e5af72172f2622f2a