[Core and coat of the hepatitis b-virus and cytoplasmic viruslike particles in chronic hepatitis. An electron...

In the second liver biopsy material of a seropositive patient receiving immunosuppressive therapy (Corticosteroid + Imuran) for chronic active hepatitis (CAH), intranuclear, ring-shaped, 20--25 nm in diameter non-coated particles (core) of liver cells and intracisternal filaments, 23 nm in diameter (coat) of the soft ER in the "ground-glass" hepatocytes were demonstrated by electron microscopy. Core-particles in the cytoplasm were seen occasionally. Dane-particles could not be visualized. Cytoplasmic spherical and ring-shaped virus-like structures (circ. 80 nm in diameter) different from B-virus components and Dane-particle were also found (second virus-infection?). The role of immuno-suppression in the appaerance of viral structures is considered because such particles could not be detected in the first biopsy before therapy when CAH and antigenaemia were already present.