HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ohori, H. Articles by Ishida, N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ohori, H. Articles by Ishida, N. Agricola Articles by Ohori, H. Articles by Ishida, N.

Immunological and Morphological Properties of HBeAg Subtypes (HBeAg/1 and HBeAg/2) in Hepatitis B Virus Core Particles

Department of Bacteriology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Seiryo-machi, Sendai, Japan

A polypeptide of 21500 mol. wt., structurally associated with hepatitis B virus core particles, was shown to have two kinds of HBeAg antigenicity (HBeAg/1 and HBeAg/2). This was revealed by transferring a single core peptide from polyacrylamide gels to nitrocellulose sheets (Western blotting), which reacted with anti-HBeAg/1 and anti-HBeAg/2. Selective discrimination of the two HBe antigens was achieved by radioimmunoassay (RIA). When highly purified core particles were incubated at 37°C in a 0.1% SDS-0.1% 2-mercaptoethanol solution, only HBeAg/1 was released after 5 min incubation and the release of HBeAg/2 occurred only after prolonging incubation for 30 min. The course of degradation was also detected by CsCl density gradient centrifugation. These results indicate that HBeAg/1 is less closely associated with core particles than is HBeAg/2. Electron microscopy showed that the core particles from which HBeAg/1 was removed were more labile than the original preparation when incubated at 56 °C in aqueous solution, or at 37 °C in Sarkosyl solutions; when placed in 1 M-NaCl or -CsCl solution, the particles swelled to a larger diameter than untreated cores.

Keywords: HBeAg subtypes, HBV core particles, association, EM

Received 9 June 1983; accepted 12 October 1983.