Relation between HBsAg binding with polymerized human serum albumin and HBV replication.

The binding between hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and polymerized human serum albumin (poly-HSA) was studied in HBsAg-negative (25) and HBsAg-positive (92) sera by a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique, and a correlation of binding activity was made with HBe-markers and hepatitis B virus-specific DNA polymerase. The binding could be detected only in HBsAg-positive sera and was found to be independent of the presence of HBe-markers and DNA polymerase activity. Further, binding was noted in significantly higher proportions of sera samples from the patient group compared with the healthy carrier group (p less than 0.01).