Hepatitis B virus infection status in the PBMC of newborns of HBsAg positivemothers

AIM To study the hepatitis B virus (HBV) status in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and itsrelationship with serum HBV infection in newborns of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive mothers.METHODS Blood specimens were collected by femoral puncture from newborns of HBsAg positive motherswithin 24 hours after birth between February, 1997 and May, 1998. All sera were examined for HBV DNAand HBsAg by nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).PBMC were separated from above blood specimen of newborns. Fifty-five FBMC smear of newborns wereobtained whose sera were HBV DNA positive and 38 PBMC smear were randomly selected from newbornswhose'sera were HBV DNA negative. These Ninety-three smear of newborns' PBMC at birth were detectedfor HBV DNA by in situ polymerase chain reaction (IS PCR) and in situ hybridization (ISH) using digoxin-labelled HBV DNA probe.RESULTS Twenty-seven (49.09%) out of 55 HBV DNA positive newborns sera had HBV DNA in PBMCand 4 (10.53%) out of 38 HBV DNA negative newborns sera were detected for HBV DNA in their PBMC byISH. Sixty-two HBV DNA negative newborns PBMC by ISH were examined for HBV DNA by IS PCR. Ten(35.71%) out of 28 HBV DNA positive newborns sera had HBV DNA in their PBMC. Two (5.88%) out of 34 HBV DNA negative newborns sera were found HBV DNA in their PBMC. Total positive rates of PBMCHBV DNA (by ISH and/or IS PCR) were 67.27% (37/55) in those newborns with HBV DNA positive seraand 15.79% (6/38) in those newborns with HBV DNA negative sera.CONCLUSION HBV DNA in PBMC were found in most of newborns who had HBV DNA positive sera.But HBV DNA in PBMC also were positive in some of newborns who were negative for HBV DNA in theirsera at birth. It suggests that intrauterine HBV infection may be demonstrated only by HBV infection intheir PBMC and should be served as diagnosis index for intrauterine HBV infection. HBV infection in PBMCmay play some role in HBV intrauterine infection and its persistence, but it needs to study furthermore.