Detection of TT virus in human hair and skin

The novel virus, TT virus (TTV), has been considered as a possible cause of cryptogenic liver disease, yet evidence of TTV prevalence in the general p opulation continues to increase. To further investigate the prevalence of T TV, hair follicle and epidermal skin samples of healthy individuals were ex amined for the presence of TTV DNA. TTV DNA was observed in two out Of 11 h air samples and four out of 11 skin samples. TTV DNA was also detected in 4 7% (17/36) of serum specimens from healthy individuals. All DNA positive sp ecimens were identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with a single pr imer set specific for the 5'-end region of the TTV genome. Amplicons From h air, skin and serum samples were sequenced and the percentage of divergence estimated by sequence alignment. The divergence of sequences present in di fferent samples from the same individual (ranging from 81.76% to 93.71%) su ggests that multiple strains of TTV may be present in each infected individ ual, with different tissues containing distinctive strains. Thus, TTV may s ubclinically infect various tissues of the body. These results suggest that TTV may be highly prevalent in the general population and thus may nor be an epidemiologically important virus. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd . All rights reserved.