[Detection of components of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in hepatocytes]

In fifty cases of hepatic processes, concominant with serological positivity to the so-called "Australian antigen", positivity was demonstrated, by biopsy in 53 per cent of cases and by necropsy in 44 per cent of cases, by way of orceine dyeing according to Shikata, and the results were better when due to formaldehyde rather than glutaraldehyde fixation. An electronoptical correlate of HBSAg formed microtubular and filamentous structures only partly connected with the smooth endoplasmatic reticule. Intranuclear presence of HBcAg could not be unequivocally demonstrated but in one case there were found in the paranuclear area structures corresponding to Dane's corpuscle formation.