State of hepatitis B virus DNA in hepatocytes of patients with noncarcinomatous liver disease. Its special relationship with necroinflammatory activity and the stage of disease.

By Southern blot hybridization, the state of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in the liver was investigated by utilizing needle biopsy specimens of 59 patients with hepatitis B surface antigen-positive noncarcinomatous liver disease. The tissue HBV DNA revealed a replicative form in 23 patients with chronic active hepatitis (48%) and an integrated form in 23 (48%) of these 48 patients. A liver with a replicative form was more frequently associated with hepatitis Be antigen (HBeAg), serum HBV DNA, and expression of hepatitis B core antigen than one without it. Integration of HBV DNA was more common in the anti-hepatitis Be phase or in the absence of necroinflammatory activity, and its frequency of occurrence roughly paralleled progression of liver disease: early, 21%; advanced, 56%; and cirrhotic stage, 61%.