Yap S H, Willems M, Van den Oord J, Habets W, Middeldorp J M, Hellings J A, Nevens F, Moshage H, Desmet V, Fevery J
Department of Liver and Pancreatic Diseases, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
J Hepatol. 1994 Feb;20(2):275-81. doi: 10.1016/s0168-8278(05)80069-8.
Hepatitis C virus has been recognized as a major cause of non-A, non-B viral hepatitis. Although serologic tests have been commercialized, no specific histological or immuno-histochemical markers for hepatitis C virus infection are available for routine use. In an effort to detect hepatitis C virus antigen in liver tissue we investigated the immuno-reactivity to monoclonal antibodies on frozen liver tissue from a chimpanzee and patients with chronic non A, non B hepatitis. Monoclonal antibodies were developed in mice immunized with a synthetic peptide derived from hepatitis C virus core antigen. One monoclonal antibody was reactive and showed typical cytoplasmic granules in chimpanzee hepatocytes. Using this monoclonal antibody a similar staining pattern was found in the liver biopsies of 21 out of 28 chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis patients, positive for hepatitis C virus-RNA and anti-HCV. The granular immuno-reactivity was abolished after pre-incubation of this monoclonal antibody with infected chimpanzee liver or with hepatitis C virus synthetic peptide but not with normal chimpanzee or human liver tissue. There was no reactivity in four patients with hepatitis C virus-RNA-negative, anti-HCV-positive chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis, in 11 patients with chronic type B hepatitis or in 12 hepatitis C virus-RNA-negative, anti-HCV-negative patients with various liver diseases. However, staining was found in three out of four additional chronic type B hepatitis patients suspected of co-infection with non-A, non-B agents.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
丙型肝炎病毒已被公认为是非甲非乙型病毒性肝炎的主要病因。尽管血清学检测已实现商业化，但目前尚无用于常规检测丙型肝炎病毒感染的特异性组织学或免疫组织化学标志物。为了检测肝组织中的丙型肝炎病毒抗原，我们研究了针对黑猩猩和慢性非甲非乙型肝炎患者冰冻肝组织中针对单克隆抗体的免疫反应性。单克隆抗体是在用源自丙型肝炎病毒核心抗原的合成肽免疫的小鼠中产生的。一种单克隆抗体具有反应性，并在黑猩猩肝细胞中显示出典型的细胞质颗粒。使用该单克隆抗体，在28例慢性非甲非乙型肝炎患者中的21例肝活检中发现了类似的染色模式，这些患者的丙型肝炎病毒RNA和抗HCV呈阳性。在用感染的黑猩猩肝脏或丙型肝炎病毒合成肽预孵育该单克隆抗体后，颗粒状免疫反应性消失，但与正常黑猩猩或人类肝组织预孵育则不会消失。在4例丙型肝炎病毒RNA阴性、抗HCV阳性的慢性非甲非乙型肝炎患者、11例慢性乙型肝炎患者或12例丙型肝炎病毒RNA阴性、抗HCV阴性的各种肝病患者中均无反应性。然而，在另外4例疑似合并非甲非乙型病原体感染的慢性乙型肝炎患者中，有3例发现了染色。（摘要截短于250字）
