Intrahepatic distribution of hepatitis B virus antigens in patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Classification system for intrahepatic hepatitis B core antigen and hepatitis B surface antigen

	HBcAg	HBsAg
Distribution
Diffuse	Contiguous without skip zones	Contiguous without skip zones
	Either in clusters or single cells	Either in clusters or single cells
Patchy	< 50% area with skip zones	< 50% area with skip zones
	Either in clusters or single cells	Either in clusters or single cells
Rare	Occasional area of entire field	Occasional area of entire field
	Either in clustersor single cells	Either in clustersor single cells
Pattern	-Nuclear	-Membranous
	-Cytoplasmic	-Cytoplasmic

HBcAg: Hepatitis B core antigen; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen.

Table 2 Clinical, virological, and histopathological characteristics of patients with chronic hepatitis B n (%)

Variables	HBeAg-positive (n = 14)	HBeAg-negative (n = 19)
Mean age in years	38.5	42
Race
Asian	13 (93)	10 (53)
White	1 (7)	1 (5)
African/African American	0 (0)	7 (37)
Hispanic	0 (0)	1 (5)
Male: female, n	11:3	13:6
HBV DNA (IU/mL), mean	28 million	7.3 million
ALT (U/L), mean	124	33
Inflammatory grades
0	0 (0)	1 (5)
1-2	13 (93)	18 (95)
3-4	1 (7)	0 (0)
Fibrosis stage
0	3 (21)	10 (53)
1-2	7 (50)	7 (37)
3-4	4 (29)	2 (10)

CHB: Chronic hepatitis B; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase.

Table 3 Immunochemical characteristics of hepatitis B core antigen/hepatitis B surface antigen in hepatitis B envelop antigen-positive and hepatitis B envelop antigen-negative patients n (%)

Variables	HBeAg-positive (n = 14)		HBeAg-negative (n = 19)
Distribution,	HBcAg	HBsAg	HBcAg	HBsAg
Diffuse	11 (79)	5 (36)	0 (0)	6 (32)
Patchy	1 (7)	2 (14)	0 (0)	10 (53)
Rare	2 (14)	7 (50)	1 (5)	3 (15)
Pattern
Cytoplasmic (+)	1 (7)	-	0 (0)	-
Nuclear (+)	2 (14)	-	0 (0)	-
Mixed: Cyto/nuclear	11 (79)	-	1 (5)	-
Cytoplasmic (+)	-	11 (79)	-	14 (74)
Membranous (+)	-	1 (7)	-	0 (0)
Mixed: Cyto/memb	-	2 (14)	-	5 (26)

HBcAg: Hepatitis B core antigen; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBeAg: Hepatitis B envelop antigen.

Table 4 Features of hepatocellular carcinoma patients based on the antiviral therapy status

Variables	HCC group on anti-viral therapy (n = 9)	HCC group on no therapy (n = 4)
Mean age ± SD, yr	53.2 ± 8.5	46.5 ± 20.5
Male: female	7:2	2:2
HBeAg negative	8/9	4/4
Undetectable HBV DNA	8/9	0/4
Cirrhosis	4/9	0/4
Invasive HCC	3/9	4/4
Tumor:
Well differentiation	6/9	1/4
Moderate differentiation	3/9	3/4
Intrahepatic HBcAg staining
(+) Only in tumor tissues	4/9	1/4
(+) Only in non-tumor tissues	3/9	1/4
(+) Both in tumor and non-tumor tissues	2/9	2/4
Intrahepatic HBsAg staining
(+) Only in tumor tissues	1/9	0/4
(+) Only in non-tumor tissues	3/9	2/4
(+) Both in tumor and non-tumor tissues	3/9	1/4

SD: Standard deviation; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBcAg: Hepatitis B core antigen; HBeAg: Hepatitis B envelop antigen.