The Correlation Between The Histologic Activity and Fibrosis and The Distribution of Intrahepatic HBsAg and HBcAg in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B / 대한간학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between histologic activity and fibrosis and the distribution of intrahepatic hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) and surface antigen (HBsAg) in patients with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS: 141 patients (MF=14127) with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis B, abnormal liver function, and a positive HBV viral marker (serum HBeAg, serum HBV DNA) were enrolled. RESULTS: HBcAg was expressed in 96 of 141 patients (68.1%), nHBcAg in 23 (16.3%), cHBcAg in 58 (41.2%), and n-cHBcAg in 15 (10.6%). In the cases of HBsAg, 114 of 141 patients (80.9%) were expressed as cHBsAg, 2 (1.4%) as mHBsAg, and 16 (11.3%) as m-cHBsAg. The presence of intrahepatic HBcAg and HBsAg according to Gudat's classification was not correlated with activity and fibrosis. But the groups with nuclear expression of HBcAg revealed less inflammatory activity (grade, p=0.003), and less fibrotic stage (p = 0.002) than with cytoplasmic or no expression of HBcAg. HBsAg was not. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that inflammatory activity and fibrosis of chronic hepatitis B are related to the presence of HBcAg in hepatocytes and the expression of HBcAg. This is a very important finding in hepatocytolysis.