Use of Immunogold-Silver Staining in Studies on the Expression of Viral Antigens in the Liver of Individuals with Chronic Asymptomatic Hepatitis B Virus Infections

HBV antigens were immunochistochemically demonstrated with colloidal goldprobes in the liver from 204 individuals with chronic asymptomatic HBV infections.Theresults were comparaed with those from 46 patients with chronic hepatitis type B (CHB).Itwas found that the prevalence of the intrahepatic antigens had no sifnificant differencebetween chronic asymptomatic hepatitis (AsH) and chronic asymptomatic carriers (AsC).However,in the prevalence of the intrahepatic HBV antigens,a significant difference didexist between AsH and CHB which had similar liver pathology.HBsAg and HBcAg were94.2% and 46.2% in AsH,and 32.6% and 17.4% in CHB,respectively.These resultssuggest that the high prevalence of viral antigens in the liver from individuals with chronicasymptomatic HBV infection might be resulted from accumulative changes during along-term infection.