Hepatitis B antigen and antibody in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Sera of 50 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were examined for the presence of hepatitis B antigen (HBAg) and antibody (HBAb) by radioimmunoassay (RIA). All single serum specimens from 48 patients examined by the basic double-antibody method for HBAg gave negative results. The "heated" double-antibody technique, which detects HBAg in the presence of HBAb or other heat-labile interfering factors, was also negative. When 151 sera from the 50 patients with SLE were tested for HBAg using solid-phase RIA, a positive reaction was observed in only one specimen. The specificity of the reaction for HBAg in this serum was confirmed. Three other serum specimens subsequently obtained from the patient were HBAg negative. The prevalence and titers of hepatitis B antibody detected by RIA among 48 of the patients with SLE were similar to those observed among healthy blood donors. No special relationship between hepatitis B virus and systemic lupus erythematosus was demonstrated.Recent reports have disagreed widely on the frequency with which hepatitis B antigen (HBAg; Australia Antigen) is found in the serum of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Using a complement fixation test, Alarc6n-Segovia (1) HBAg in at least one serum specimen from 79 (75%) of 116 patients with SLE. Ziegenfuss (2) tested mercaptoethanol-treated sera by a modified counterelectrophoresis (CEP) technique and found HBAg in 9 of 17 (47%) patients. I n contrast, Panush et al (3) found that all sera of 100 patients with SLE were HBAg-negative by CEP.These studies employed relatively insensitive HBAg-testing methods. I n the present investigation two highly sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) techniques-ie, a double-antibody method employing human antiserum against HBAg (4) and a commercial solid-phase method using guinea pig antibody (5)-were used in testing multiple serum samples from 50 patients with welldocumented SLE. T o obtain further information about previous exposure of these patients to hepatitis B virus, sera from 48 of the patients were tested for antibody to HBAg (HBAb), also by RIA.

Low prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in patients with autoimmune diseases in a Chinese patient population

“…However, HBV infection in patients with autoimmune diseases has not been seen very often in our clinical practice, and reports in the literature on prevalence of HBV infection in autoimmune diseases vary [18]. Furthermore, there has been no pertinent data on HBV prevalence in the Chinese autoimmune patient population [19,20]. Chronic infections with hepatitis B and C are not more prevalent in patients with SLE compared with the general population [21].…”

Hepatitis B Virus-associated Antigen Deposition in Renal Tissue from Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

“…It is reasonable to suspect a higher frequency of HBV infection in patients with SLE than in the general population because of the increased susceptibility to infection that results from immunological dysfunction and treatment with corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive agents. Unexpectedly, patients with SLE have lower prevalence of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and higher prevalence of anti-HBV antibody compared with the general population 4,7,8,9,10 . In China, the prevalence of serum HBsAg is 2.33% in patients with SLE compared with 9.56% in the general population 4 .…”

Structural analysis of hepatitis B surface antigen by monoclonal antibodies.

“…5 depicts the substantial heterogeneity in the antigenic structure of the ayw3 viral strain by signature analysis. Initially, the ayw3 subtype had been identified by conventional polyclonal RIAs (17)(18)(19) or by CEP (20) as a single homogeneous viral strain. Two ofthe ayw3 variants were from the U. S. and have been characterized as ayw3 and subgroup ayw3 by their signature profiles (7 the signature of the ayw2 strain derived from the U. S. (Fig.…”

“…64 serum samples, derived from known chronic HBsAg carriers and representing HBV subtypes in the U. S. were selected for definition of viral antigenic structure by signature analysis. These specimens had been classified as ayw2, ayw3, adw2, adw,, and adr HBsAg subtypes using conventional polyvalent anti-HBsAg antibodies (17)(18)(19). In addition, 39 serum samples from Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine, Paris, France (kindly provided by A. M. Courouce), were also analyzed by the eight monoclonal RIAs.…”