Mitsui Takehiro, Tsukamoto Yukie, Suzuki Shigeru, Yamazaki Chikao, Masuko Kazuo, Tsuda Fumio, Takahashi Masaharu, Tsatsralt-Od Bira, Nishizawa Tsutomu, Okamoto Hiroaki
Masuko Memorial Hospital and Masuko Institute for Medical Research, Aichi-Ken, Japan.
J Med Virol. 2005 Aug;76(4):526-33. doi: 10.1002/jmv.20393.
Subclinical hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection among healthy individuals was studied serologically and molecularly. Serum samples collected at screening between March and April 2004 (or just before retirement) from 266 medical staff members (35 males, 231 females) who had been working for 8.8 +/- 8.5 (mean +/- standard deviation, range, 0.3-35.1) years in a city hospital in Japan and serum samples that had been collected from these staff members at the start of employment were tested for IgA, IgM, and IgG antibodies to HEV (anti-HEV) by in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Overall, six subjects (2.3%) tested positive for anti-HEV IgG at the screening; among them, four subjects (1.5%) had already been positive for anti-HEV IgG at the start of employment and two subjects (0.8%) seroconverted after initiation of employment. Periodic serum samples that had been collected from the two seroconverted subjects were tested for HEV antibodies and HEV RNA. The two subjects became positive for anti-HEV IgG in 1978 or 2003, respectively, with no discernible elevation in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level, and continued to be seropositive up through the screening date. Although anti-HEV IgM was not detectable in the two subjects, one was infected transiently with Japan-indigenous HEV strain of genotype 3 and the other was positive transiently for anti-HEV IgA. The present study indicates that even an individual with subclinical HEV infection had evidence of transient viremia in the absence of ALT elevation and that anti-HEV IgA detection may be useful for serological diagnosis of recent subclinical HEV infection.
对健康个体中的亚临床戊型肝炎病毒（HEV）感染进行了血清学和分子学研究。2004年3月至4月（或退休前）在日本一家城市医院对266名医护人员（35名男性，231名女性）进行筛查时采集的血清样本，以及这些医护人员入职时采集的血清样本，通过内部酶联免疫吸附试验检测了抗HEV的IgA、IgM和IgG抗体。总体而言，6名受试者（2.3%）在筛查时抗HEV IgG检测呈阳性；其中，4名受试者（1.5%）在入职时抗HEV IgG就已呈阳性，2名受试者（0.8%）在入职后发生了血清学转换。对两名血清学转换受试者定期采集的血清样本进行了HEV抗体和HEV RNA检测。这两名受试者分别于1978年或2003年抗HEV IgG呈阳性，丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）水平无明显升高，并一直保持血清学阳性直至筛查日期。虽然在这两名受试者中未检测到抗HEV IgM，但其中一名短暂感染了日本本土3型HEV毒株，另一名抗HEV IgA短暂呈阳性。本研究表明，即使是亚临床HEV感染个体，在无ALT升高的情况下也有短暂病毒血症的证据，并且抗HEV IgA检测可能有助于近期亚临床HEV感染的血清学诊断。
