Molecular Epidemiological Study On The Mechanism Of Intrauterine Transmission Of Hepatitis B Virus

Purposes Intrauterine transmission of HBV is an important reason for thelarge number of HBV carriers in our country. At present, there were only a few reports about the mechanism of HBV intrauterine transmission. Most of them were descriptive studies. Since 1993 our department have studied systematically in this field and our studies suggested that there might be two transmission routes on the mechanism of HBV intrauterine transmission, homogenous by damage of placental vessels and cellular through placental cellular transfer of HBV. But much work must be done if we confirm it. On the other hand, it is not clear about HBV infection status in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of newborns of HBsAg positive mothers and relationship with HBV infection in sera and placentas. There were a few documents about the change of HBV status of newborns who had HBV in utero and its risk factors. This paper performed following study: (1) infection status of HBV in newborns' sera of HBsAg positive mothers and its change; (2) infection status and distribution feature of HBV DNA in PBMC and relationship with HBV infection in newborns' sera; (3) distribution features of HBV DNA, HBsAg, HBcAg in placenta and relationship with HBV infection in sera and PBMC ; (4) risk factors of HBV infection in PBMC and placenta; (5) risk factors of HBV intrauterine infection in newborns. Methods 171 pregnant women and 173 newborns were collected between February, 1997 and July, 1998 in Taiyuan infectious hospital. Placentas and blood specimens from mothers and blood specimens from infants at birth...