[TT virus infection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma associated with non-A to G hepatitis: histopathological...

To study if TTV infection is involved in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we tested the sera of 19 patients with HCC associated with non-A to G hepatitis for the presence of serum TTV DNA, and compared the blood chemistry values and liver histology of the patients in the TTV DNA-positive and -negative groups. Detection of TTV DNA was performed described as Nishizawa, et al method. TTV DNA was detected in the sera of 47.4%. There were no significant differences in the blood chemistry results and other tests between the TTV-positive and -negative patients. Histological examination of the non-tumor regions of the liver showed that there were no significant differences in the number of areas and characteristics of the necro-inflammatory reactions, the degree of staging and irregular regeneration of hepatocyte between the two groups. These results suggest that the development of HCC in patients with non-A to G hepatitis is not associated with TTV infection.