COMPARISON OF HEPATITIS-B VIRUS CORE PROMOTER SEQUENCES IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD MONONUCLEAR-CELLS AND SERUM FROM PATIENTS WITH HEPATITIS-B

It has been reported that hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA is present in pe ripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), although it is unclear wheth er it actually replicates there or is adsorbed from serum. HBV DNA seq uences from the core promoter and precore regions were amplified from PBMCs and serum taken from 13 patients with hepatitis B infection, Ana lysis by single strand conformation polymorphism, direct sequencing an d cloning revealed identical HBV DNA sequences in both PBMCs and serum from five patients with acute hepatitis and in five out of eight pati ents with chronic hepatitis. However, in the remaining three chronic h epatitis cases, HBV DNA sequences in both PBMCs and serum were differe nt: two patients harboured HBV DNA sequences from their PBMCs with del etions/insertions in the core promoter region and one patient harboure d HBV DNA sequences from their PBMCs with two nucleotide substitutions . These findings point to a possible presence of independent HBV DNA r eplication in PBMCs.