[Demonstration of intrahepatic HBsAg and HBcAg in chronic liver disease by double staining].

Expression and distribution of intrahepatic HBsAg and HBcAG were studied by double staining immunohistochemical assay in chronic liver disease. HBsAg was homogenously cytoplasmic in typing in 41 and HBcAg was cytoplasmic-membranous in 31 of 46 cases which were known to be positive for both HBsAg and HBcAg intrahepatically. The expressing sites of both HBsAg and HBcAg in 40 of the 46 cases were found to be positive in the same areas of the sections. Interestingly, it was found that intrahepatic HBsAg and HBcAg were often coexistent in the same hepatocyte, and these hepatocytes were considered to be further classifiable into type I and type II according to their distribution. The detective rate of type II cell was significantly higher during the HBV replication stage serologically. HBsAg and HBcAg coexpression in cytoplasm of hepatocyte was noticed to be closely related to active pathological change of the liver cells.