The Degrees of Hepatocyte Cytoplasmic Expression of Hepatitis B Core Antigen correlate with Histologic Activity of Liver Disease in the Young Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

摘要

Subcellular localizaton of HBcAg have been found to be related to the activity of liver disease and HBV replication. The aim of this study was to determine whether the degree of expression of HBcAg in the hepatocyte nucleus and cytoplasm reflects the level of viral replication and histological activity in chronic HBV infection. A total of 102 patients with biopsy proven chronic hepatitis B were included. There was a highly significant correlation between the levels of HBV DNA in serum and the degree of expression of HBcAg in the nucleus for HBeAg-positive( p =0.000) and negative patients( p =0.04). There was a highly significant, correlation between the degrees of expression of HBcAg in hepatocyte cytoplasm and histologic activities ( p