Endogenous DNA polymerase-positive core particles from hepatitis-infected hepatocytes

The purification is described of liver-derived hepatitis B core antigen (HBc Ag) from human hepatocytes demonstrating only intranuclear particles by electron microscopy. The purified preparation contained 5 x 10(11) particles per ml. The particles were mono-dispersed and relatively free of background material. DNA-dependent polymerase activity was present and had greater activity than an equal number of cores derived from Dane particles isolated from plasma. Specificity of the polymerase reaction was confirmed by precipitation of the activity with specific anti-HBc antiserum. A proportion of the liver-derived core particles was nonreactive for DNA polymerase activity. The polymerase-positive population of particles had a larger size than the polymerase-negative population of liver-derived cores as evidenced by gel filtration in Sepharose 4B.