Hepatitis B virus replication in diverse cell types during chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Hepatitis B virus-specific nucleic acid sequences and proteins have been detected in extrahepatic tissues of acutely and chronically infected patients. However, apart from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and bone marrow cells, little is known about the specific cell types that permit viral replication. In this study, we assessed the extrahepatic tissues of four patients who died with chronic hepatitis B virus infection and two uninfected controls by means of in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical study. Three of these patients had diffuse extrahepatic distribution of the virus. Hepatitis B virus nucleic acid sequences and proteins were detected in the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, kidney, skin, colon, stomach, testes and periadrenal ganglia. The following cell types were found to be positive for hepatitis B virus: endothelial cells, macrophages/monocytes, hematopoietic precursors, basal keratinocytes, mucosal epithelial cells, stromal fibroblasts and sustentacular and neuronal cells. It is probable that these cells could support viral replication because hepatitis B virus DNA replicative intermediates, viral transcripts and HBsAg and HBcAg proteins were detected in most. These findings may be relevant to the initiation of extrahepatic syndromes associated with chronic hepatitis B virus infection such as vasculitis, glomerulonephropathy, neuropathy and dermatitis.