Hepatitis B core antibody in blood donor in sistan-balutuestan province of Iran.

Background: Safety of blood donor is an important issue for a recipient of blood so all blood donors are to screened for viral such as HBV, HCV, and HIV. Nevertheless, infections sometime occur by blood and its products. Objective: Because we haven't got any awareness about isolated Hbc Ab from a blood donor who presented of occults B hepatitis which can transmit infection to blood recipient, we decided to evaluate HbcAb in a blood donor in this province. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study on a blood donor in Sistan-Balutuestan province in southeast of Iran in 2010. All individuals referred for blood donation recruited to this. After consent demographic data was recorded from each case, 5 ml blood sample was drawn and centrifuged to separate out the serum and then HbsAb, HbcAb was assayed. Data analyzed by SPSS 16 and frequency, chi- square test, and Fisher exact test was used and if P > 0.05 it was accented as significant association. Result: All individuals were men with age 55 10.5 years. The number of people who had free job was 149 (34.6%) and the number of people whose education level was diploma was 159 (36.9%). About 423 (98.1%) lived in urban areas. The mean weight of men was 76.6 13.7; about 259 (60.1%) men were married. A total of 22 (5.1%) had a positive smoking history. HBc Ab was positive in 87 (20.2%). Nearly all people had HBsAb titer more than 10 IU/L. Conclusion:This study showed that some of the blood donors had isolated HbcAb positive therefore we recommend HbcAb screening for blood donation.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in turtles

Thirty turtles (15 Clemys mutica and 15 Geoclemys reevesii) which were inoculated with human sera those were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B "e" antigen (HBeAg) were found to be infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). The levels of HBV infection markers, such as HBsAg and antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBsAg), were retinely monitored in the turtles' serum for 46 weeks. Within two weeks of the inoculation, 42% of the turtles tested were positive for HBsAg, and their reciprocal titers as measured by reverse passive hemagglutination (RPHA) and enzyme linked immunoabsorbance assay (ELISA) ranged from 16 to 96. Within 20 weeks, the remaining turtles tested HBsAg positive, as confirmed by ELISA. At 20 weeks, all but one of the turtles exhibited changes in HBV blood marker from HBsAg to anti-HBs; the one exception was positive for both HBsAg and anti-HBs. At the 47th week, 7 animals were killed and their organs were examined for HBV infected cells utilizing an immunofluorescent technique. Numerous fluorescent cells which reacted with human anti-HBs nad anti-HBc were observed in the following organs: pancreas, liver, kidney, and brain. Histopathologically, edematous changes in hepatocytes and minor cellular infiltration attributed to an inflammatory response were noted. Liver and kidney cells from the infected animals were cultured, and HBV antigen positive cells for HBsAg and HBcAg were detected in the cultures. Throughout the experiment, HBsAg was detected in the supernatant by ELISA. Virus particles which were indistinguishable from Dane particles were seen in the cytoplasmic vacuoles of the cultured cells by electron microscopy. Finally, the presence of HBV DNA was established by molecular hybridization techniques in the culture supernatants of kidney cells from the infected turtles.