Prevalence of TT virus DNA in eastern Taiwan aborigines

We studied the prevalence of TT virus (TTV) DNA in the general population o f the eastern Taiwan aborigine villages, about 11% (34 of 317). There is no association between the presence of HBsAg and TTV DNA or betwen the presen ce of HCV RNA and TTV DNA. Therefore, the infection of HBV or HCV and the p resence of TN DNA appear to be independent from each other. The association between the presence of TTV DNA and the elevated alanine aminotransferase (and/or aspartate aminotransferase) activity was also investigated. The pre sence of TTV DNA was not found to be correlated with abnormal liver functio n (P = 0.574) when age, gender, and the presence of HBsAg, HCV RNA, and HGV RNA were all considered in the assay. The sequence homology of TTV DNA fra gments between different isolates from Taiwan and N22 (the clone obtained f rom the original prototype strain) from Japan ranged from 84 to 97%. The re combinant protein encoded by the TTV DNA fragment corresponding to the open reading frame of N22 was expressed in E. coli successfully. However, no se rum response against the recombinant protein was detected. (C) 1999 Wiley-L iss, Inc.