Administration of human fibroblast interferon in chronic hepatitis-B infection.

One patient with hepatitis-B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive chronic aggressive hepatitis, and two chimpanzee carriers of HBsAg, were each given seven doses of 10(7) I.U. of human fibroblast interferon over two weeks. The main differnce observed after treatment was a depression of the nucleocapsid hepatitis-0 core antigen in the liver, indicating that hepatitis-B virus infection is sensitive to interferon. Except for a short febrile reaction, no undesirable effects were seen after the administration of human fibroblast interferon which has not been previously given to man.