Hideyuki Tsuji

Quantitative detection of hepatitis C virus genome in liver tissue and circulation by competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

We quantified hepatitis C virus RNA in 25 Japanese patients with chronic type C liver disease by competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The amount of the viral RNA in the serum (2×105−2×108 copies/ml) correlated with that in the liver tissue (108−1011 copies/g) (N=23,r=0.727,P<0.0001). One gram of the infected liver tissue contained 102−104 (geometric mean, 103,N=23) times as many copies of the viral RNA as did 1 ml of the serum. Liver tissues of chronic aggressive hepatitis contained significantly higher amounts of the viral RNA than those of chronic persistent hepatitis (P<0.05). These observations suggested that this method is useful to evaluate viral amount, and the amount of the circulating hepatitis C virus RNA could be used as a marker of the intrahepatic viral amounts, which might contribute to disease activity.

High prevalence of TT virus in human bile juice samples: importance of secretion through bile into feces.

TT virus (TTV) is much more prevalent than we once imagined. With the use of primers designed from the noncoding regions, a more than 90% rate of TTV infection in the general population by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been reported, showing that nonparenteral transmission must play an important role to its epidemiology. We considered that TTV may be secreted through bile juice into feces to establish nonparenteral infection. Paired bile juice and serum samples were obtained from 26 patients who were receiving bile drainage. Feces were also recovered after the drainage tube was removed. TTV DNA was detected from 22 patients in serum (84.6%), and they were all TTV DNA positive in bile juice. Most feces samples recovered from TTV-positive patients were also TTV DNA positive. Secretion of TTV into bile juice appears to be common, and this could play an important role to its transmission and its epidemiology.

Peritoneoscopic Findings of Autoimmune Hepatitis

Abstract: To clarify the morphologic differences between hepatitis C virus (HCVI‐negative autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and HCV‐positive AIH, peritoneoscopic findings were studied. Among twenty three patients with AIH according to the Japanese criteria (1992), 15 were HCV‐negative and 8 were HCV‐positive. The terms grooved depression, coarse depression, coarse elevation, coarse undulation, and round‐shaped reddish marking (RM) were used in this study to evaluate the peritoneoscopic findings. Grooved depressions, coarse depressions, coarse elevations, coarse undulations and round‐shaped RMs were all common findings (53%, 87%, 73%, 80%, and 80%, respectively) in HCV‐negative AIH patients, but they were less common (13%, 25%, 13%, 13%, and 0%, respectively) in HCV‐positive AIH patients. This study revealed that HCV‐negative AIH patients had different peritoneoscopic findings from HCV‐positive AIH patients. Thus HCV‐negative AIH may be typical AIH, and HCV‐positive AIH may essentially be a subset of type C chronic hepatitis.