Transfusion-transmitted virus infection in China: prevalence in blood donors and in patients with liver diseases.
BACKGROUND
Prevalence of transfusion-transmitted virus (TTV) infection among blood donors and in patients with liver diseases in China was studied.


METHODS
DNA was extracted from serum and amplified by seminested polymerase chain reaction with reported primer sets from a conserved region of the TTV genome.


RESULTS
TT Virus DNA was detected in 55 of 196 blood donors (28%); 31% (40 of 127) in the north and 22% (15 of 69) in the south. TT Virus DNA was also detected in 14 of 31 patients (45%) with non-A-non-G fulminant hepatitis and in eight of 25 patients (32%) with non-A-non-G chronic hepatitis. The rate of TTV viraemia in these patients with liver disease was comparable to that in blood donors. TT Virus DNA sequencing of 12 isolates showed that the prevalence of genotype 2 was significantly higher than that reported in Japan (66.7 vs 2.6%, P < 0.001). Furthermore, genotyping assays based on restriction fragment length polymorphism were carried out on all 88 TTV DNA-positive samples. It was found that 42 isolates (47.7%) belonged to genotype 1 and 40 (45.5%) to genotype 2. It was of particular interest that the prevalence of genotype 1 in patients with non-A-non-G fulminant hepatitis was significantly higher than that in blood donors (10/14 vs 22/55, P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The data indicate that TTV infection is common in China and that the pathogenic potential of TTV toward the liver (if any) may differ between genotypes.
He
C
C
Department of Clinical Pathology, Institute for Clinical Medicine, Tsukuba University, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki, Japan.
Nomura
F
F
Yukimasa
N
N
Itoga
S
S
Yamada-Osaki
M
M
Sumazaki
R
R
Nakai
T
T
D000328:Adult; D001782:Blood Donors; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004266:DNA Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D004267:DNA Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral