Virus replication and liver disease in chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

Recent studies on the natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus infection have provided evidence for a close temporal relationship between the phase of active virus replication and development of liver lesions. To assess the role that virus replication plays in this phase in determining the severity of the liver disease, we studied serum levels of virus-specific DNA-polymerase activity and hepatitis Be antigen/antibody status in 48 chronic carriers of the hepatitis B surface antigen found positive for the hepatitis B core antigen in the liver. There was a remarkably evident inverse correlation between virus replication activity and liver disease activity, patients with minimal histological changes having the highest DNA-polymerase levels (mean +/- SD: 3879 +/- 2557 cpm) and those with severe chronic active hepatitis the lowest enzyme levels (419 +/- 246 cpm), while cases of chronic persistent hepatitis and of mild chronic active hepatitis had intermediate levels. Serum hepatitis Be antigen was detected in 31/32 patients with milder liver lesions and in 11/16 with severe liver lesions; the remaining five cases were anti-HBe-positive despite the presence of the core antigen in the liver. Serum levels of virus replication markers closely correlated with the distribution pattern of the core antigen in the liver. These findings indicate that in chronic hepatitis B the severity of liver disease is not directly related to levels of virus replication, thus suggesting a predominant role of host immune mechanisms.