RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN PARVOVIRUS B19 INFECTION AND APLASTIC ANEMIA

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between human parvovirus B19 (HPV B19) infection and aplastic anemia (AA) and to investigate the role of HPV B19 in the occurrence of AA. METHODS: The presence of HPV B19 DNA was detected in the peripheral blood samples of 60 patients with AA (children 38 and adults 22) by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, and 30 healthy persons were selected as control. RESULTS: Sixteen (26.7%) of 60 AA cases were HPV B19 DNA positive, while all the samples in the control group were negative for HPV B19 (P = 0.000914). Among the case group, the positive rates of HPV B19 DNA were 21.4% (6/28), 30.0% (3/10), 20.0% (1/5) and 35.3% (6/17) in children acute AA (AAA), children chronic AA (CAA), adults AAA and adults CAA patients respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the control group. Furthermore, there was no remarkable difference between children AA and adults AA in the 16 HPV B19 DNA positive patients; neither was there between AAA and CAA. CONCLUSION: HPV B19 infection is not only correlated with the occurrence of children AAA and CAA, but also with adults AAA and CAA, and might be an important viral cause for AA in humans.