To determine the clinical implications of HBSAg in severe chronic active liver disease (CALD), patients with HBSAg positive CALD were compared with those chosen by identical clinical, functional, and morphological criteria in whom this test and anti-HBS were negative. HBSAg positive patients were predominantly males over 40 years of age and more frequently failed to respond to conventional trea...

One possibility to increase the organ pool is to use grafts from hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive donors, but few data are currently available in this setting. Herein, we reviewed the outcome of 92 liver transplantations using allografts from HBsAg-positive donors in the United States (1990-2009). They had experienced HBV-related (n = 68) or HBV-unrelated disease (n = 24...

We tracked the Hepatitis B virus-like vesicles (the surface antigen of Hepatitis B virus, HBsAg) infecting living cells by real-time laser confocal fluorescence imaging. The results show a vesicle-associated movement in the early stage of endocytic trafficking of HBsAg near the plasma membrane. Tracking the internalized HBsAg in the later stage of infection reveals that most HBsAg particles are...

Results: VR at 48 weeks post-treatment, defined as HBeAg seroconversion and HBV DNA less than 10 000 copies/mL was achieved in 10 (33.3%) patients. Responders had significantly lower baseline HBsAg, HBeAg, cccDNA and intrahepatic HBV DNA levels than non-responders. Baseline and reduced levels of log10 HBsAg and log10 HBeAg correlated well with those of log10 cccDNA and log10 total intrahepatic ...

The long surface antigen (L-HBsAg) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) plays a central role in the production of infectious virions. During HBV morphogenesis, both the PreS and S domains of L-HBsAg form docking sites for the viral nucleocapsids. Thus, a compound that disrupts the interaction between the L-HBsAg and nucleocapsids could serve as a therapeutic agent against the virus based upon inhibition ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the expression of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in human ovary and placenta and the vertical transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FIDNINGS Ovarian and placental tissue specimens of pregnant women infected with HBV were collected during cesarean section and immunostained for HBsAg. The s...

Quantification of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) helps the management of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Median HBsAg levels differ significantly during the natural history of HBV infection, progressively declining from immune tolerance to inactive phase. The combination of an HBsAg <1000 IU/mL and HBV DNA <2000 IU/mL at a single time point accurately identif...

The immunodominant, conformational "a" determinant of hepatitis B surface Ag (HBsAg) elicits Ab responses. We selectively expressed the Ab-binding, glycosylated, native a determinant (residue 120-147) of HBsAg in a fusion protein containing C-terminally the HBsAg fragment SII (residue 80-180) fused to a SV40 T-Ag-derived hsp73-binding 77 aa (T(77)) or non-hsp-binding 60 aa (T(60)) N terminus. A...

In previous studies, the mechanisms of acute liver injury and virus exclusion have been examined using a model wherein HBsAgspecific CTL are injected into HBsAg transgenic (Tg) mice. The importance of the role of TNFin virus exclusion was shown, but its role in liver injury was unclear. We crossed the TNFknockout mouse and HBsAg-Tg mouse to establish the HBsAgTg/TNFKO mouse, and examined the in...

UNLABELLED Pegylated interferon alfa-2a (PEG-IFN) may induce sustained virological response (SVR) in 20% of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. In addition, loss of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is achieved with a 10% yearly rate after treatment cessation in sustained responders. The aim of this study was to assess on-treatment serum HBsAg kinetics t...