Occult hepatitis B virus in liver tissue of individuals without hepatic disease☆

Received 19 October 2007; received in revised form 4 January 2008; accepted 7 January 2008. published online 13 February 2008.

Background/Aims

While many data are available concerning occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in patients with hepatic disorders, there is little information about this cryptic infection in individuals without liver disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of occult HBV in the general population by examining liver specimens from a large series of HBV-surface-antigen negative individuals with no clinical and biochemical evidence of liver disease.

Methods

The presence of HBV DNA was evaluated by testing, through polymerase chain reaction techniques, DNA extracts from 98 liver-disease-free individuals who underwent liver resection or needle biopsy during abdominal surgery. Sixteen of them were anti-HBV-core antigen (anti-HBc) positive and 82 were HBV serum-marker negative. All patients were negative for antibody to hepatitis C virus.

Results

Occult HBV infection was revealed in 16 of the 98 cases (16.3%). In particular, 10/16 anti-HBc positive (62.5%) versus 6/82 (7.3%) HBV-seronegative individuals were occult carriers (p<0.0001).

Conclusions

This study revealed that about 1/6 of the Italian general population might be carriers of occult HBV infection, and this condition is significantly associated with the anti-HBc positive status.

Associate Editor: F. Zoulim

Abbreviations: HBV, hepatitis B virus, HBsAg, HBV-surface-antigen, anti-HBc, antibody to the HBV-core-antigen, anti-HBs, anti HBsAg antibody, HBVcccDNA, viral covalently-closed-circular DNA, OLT, orthotopic liver transplantation, PCR, polymerase chain reaction, SD, standard deviation

Keywords: Occult HBV, HBV DNA, Normal liver, Anti-HBc, HBV-seronegative

1 Unit of Clinical and Molecular Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Messina University Hospital, Via Consolare Valeria, 98124 Messina, Italy

2 Department of Surgical Sciences, Messina University Hospital, Italy

3 Liver Unit, Seriate Hospital, Bergamo, Italy

4 Department of Human Pathology, Messina University Hospital, Messina, Italy

5 Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences, Palermo University Hospital, Palermo, Italy

Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 90 2212392; fax: +39 90 2935162.

☆ The authors declare that they do not have anything to disclose regarding funding from industries or conflict of interest with respect to this manuscript.

† Present address: Internal Medicine Department, Policlinico San Pietro, Bergamo, Italy.

PII: S0168-8278(08)00081-0

doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2008.01.023

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