Abstract
Liver tissues taken from 64 patients with HBsAg positive chronic liver disease (nonneoplastic) were analyzed by the method of Southern blot and HBV DNA hybridization. HBV DNA was detected in 36 of 38 (95%) HBeAg seropositive patients, in 3 of 7 (43%) HBeAg-antiHBeAb negative patients, and in 7 of 19 (37%) anti-HBeAb positive patients. Free HBV DNAs including single stranded, partially double stranded and supercoiled HBV DNA were found in almost all HBeAg positive patients and also in 19% of HBeAg negative or anti-HBeAb positive patients. These patients with "active" type or actively replicating HBV DNA despite HBeAg negativity tellded to show higher sGPT levels and advanced liver diseases. Free viral DNA with "inactive" type HBV DNA which had only supercoiled (no evidence of active replication) was found in 3 cases (1 with eAg-/eAb-, and 2 with eAg-/eAb+).
Integrated HBV DNA was found in 4 cases. "Clonal" type integration which shows distinct high molecular bands after enzyme digestion was found in 2 cases, both with cirrhosis. "Random" type integration which shows only a smear after restriction enzyme digestion was found in 2 cases with chronic persistent hepatitis.
Southern blot hybridization of hepatic HBV DNA could reveal not only integration of hepatic HBV DNA into genomic DNA, but also the state of various episomal replicative forms.
