Commentary and Review Series 2-07
Validation of the use of freeze-dried sera for the diagnosis of hepatitis B and C virus infections in a longitudinal study cohort
Ohishi W, Fujiwara S, Suzuki G, Chayama KResearch Advances in Microbiology 7. Mohan RM (edit). Kerala: Global Research Network; pp 1-9, 2007 June
Summary
Use of stored serum samples has been invaluable for the collection of data for epidemiological and clinical studies related to liver diseases. We review here in this respect the usefulness of freeze-dried sera for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. We compared HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc Ab), anti-HCV antibody (anti-HCV Ab), HBV and HCV genotypes, and quantiative detection of HBV DNA and HCV RNA in frozen and freeze-dried serum samples obtained from 12 HBsAg-positive cases and 25 anti-HCV-positive cases among Adult Health Study (AHS) longitudinal cohort subjects in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Freeze-dried sera, as well as frozen sera, were found to be useful for serological and molecular biological detection of HBV and HCV infections. Moreover, the distributions of HBV and HCV infection-positive samples within stored frozen and freeze-dried sera were found to be reliable in a nested case-control study of hepatocellular carcinoma among AHS cohort subjects. It is expected that use of freeze-dried sera, as well as frozen sera, stored for long periods may aid an abet with ongoing and future research on the etiology and pathogenesis of liver diseases.
Use of stored serum samples has been invaluable for the collection of data for epidemiological and clinical studies related to liver diseases. We review here in this respect the usefulness of freeze-dried sera for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. We compared HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc Ab), anti-HCV antibody (anti-HCV Ab), HBV and HCV genotypes, and quantiative detection of HBV DNA and HCV RNA in frozen and freeze-dried serum samples obtained from 12 HBsAg-positive cases and 25 anti-HCV-positive cases among Adult Health Study (AHS) longitudinal cohort subjects in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Freeze-dried sera, as well as frozen sera, were found to be useful for serological and molecular biological detection of HBV and HCV infections. Moreover, the distributions of HBV and HCV infection-positive samples within stored frozen and freeze-dried sera were found to be reliable in a nested case-control study of hepatocellular carcinoma among AHS cohort subjects. It is expected that use of freeze-dried sera, as well as frozen sera, stored for long periods may aid an abet with ongoing and future research on the etiology and pathogenesis of liver diseases.