Intrahepatic HBVDNA replication and gene products expression correlated with foci of hepatic necrosis.

Intrahepatic HBVDNA of patients with chronic hepatitis B was detected by in situ cytohybridization assay in combination with demonstration of HBsAg and HBcAg expression, and correlated with the foci of hepatic necrosis. It was found that HBsAg and HBcAg expressing sites appeared in the same areas where HBVDNA replicated; when HBsAg and HBcAg simultaneously expressed in the liver, one antigen usually dominated, the other declined. This unbalanced expression may be caused by the gene or transcripts variance which encodes the surface or core antigen, or by the activity of each replication. The other observation is that HBVDNA-positive hepatocytes outnumbered liver cells containing HBsAg and HBcAg in a few cases. It is supposed that a part of cytoplasmic HBVDNA was on replicative phase with gene production expression, on the contrary, another part of cytoplasmic HBVDNA may be out of replication with no gene product expression during chronic hepatitis B. Finally HBsAg and HBcAg expressing sites corresponding to HBVDNA-positive hepatocytes were closely attached to the foci of hepatic necrosis. There was no significant difference in the frequency of HBsAg and HBcAg expression correlating to hepatic necrosis.