Non A, non B hepatitis: ultrastructural findings in human liver biopsies

Dense intranuclear particles 30 to 40 nm diameter, could be identified in liver specimens from female patients, who immediately after delivery had been inoculated with sera contaminated with non A, non B hepatitis. The same particles were described previously by KENDREY et al. (1975) in a case of acute hepatitis without clinical or serological evidence for hepatitis A and B. The joint occurrence of dense intranuclear particles with typical core particles in cases of chronic B hepatitis show that they are not specific for non A, non B hepatitis. The observed structures are likely to be nonspecific responses of hepatocytic nuclei to different hepatitis viruses. The nature of relationship to the infectious agent remains to be elucidated. Tubular structures in the endoplasmic reticulum and other cytoplasmic inclusions which had been demonstrated in liver cells from chimpanzees inoculated with non A, non B hepatitis, did not occur in our material.