Pathogenic and therapeutic differences among hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes have been documented. However, the association of virological characteristics with clinical differences among HBV genotypes remains unclear. We therefore studied the clinical and virological characteristics of Taiwanese volunteer blood donors infected with HBV genotypes B and C. HBV genotypes were determined in 300 c...

Understanding the consequences of mutation in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome on HBV replication is critical for treating chronic HBV infection. In this study, HBV replication in HepG2 cells initiated by transduction with precore (PC), rtM204I, and wild-type (wt) HBV recombinant baculoviruses was compared. The pattern and magnitude of HBV replication initiated by the PC HBV recombinant bacul...

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health problem. Serum HBV DNA measurement is a non-invasive test that predicts the liver disease progression. The aim of this study was to determine the HBV DNA level and look for a relation between the HBV DNA level and liver histology. Methods: This was a cross sectional study on chronic...

Background: The outcome of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is chronic or resolved HBV infection. Over the time, the levels of HBsAg or Anti-HBs declined and were not detectable in their sera and was named as isolated anti-HBc. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of isolated anti-HBc in previously HBV infected individuals.Methods: From April 2000 to September 2008, the resul...

Postinfectious acute glomerulonephritis (PIGN) may occur after various bacterial and viral infections. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a cause of chronic glomerulonephritis. We report here 10 cases (ages 7-20 years-old) of chronic HBV carriers with acute glomerulonephritis, with positive glomerular staining of hepatitis B surface antigen, and detectable presence of HBV DNA in the glomeruli...

The presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in extrahepatic tissues has been well documented. Whether HBV DNA can persist in extrahepatic tissues for long periods of time in the absence of replication in the liver has not been determined previously. Recently, two patients with end-stage liver disease secondary to chronic active HBV were treated with baboon liver xenotransplants as these animals...

The recognition of replicating hepatitis B virus (HBV) may be important to both define the cause of and know how to manage chronic liver disease in multitransfused hemophilic patients. Replicating HBV can be detected at the molecular level by methods for HBV-specific DNA (HBV-DNA), which are much more sensitive than the immunologic methods for detecting hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and h...

Previous studies reported that hepatitis B virus (HBV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can be detected in livers of patients who received transplants for hepatitis B despite the absence of serological markers of HBV recurrence. Quantification of HBV DNA was not performed and presence of covalently closed circular (ccc) DNA was not analyzed in most studies. We aimed to quantify total and ccc HBV DNA...