The Relationship between a 27-nm Virus-Like Particle and Hepatitis A as Demonstrated by Immune Electron Microscopy

Abstract

Virus-like particles, 27 nm in diameter, were visualized in stool specimens collected from 8 out of 9 patients with hepatitis A during the acute phase of their illness. No such particles were observed in stools from 3 patients in the acute phase of hepatitis B infection, nor in stools from 9 non-hepatitis patients. When sera from patients suffering a variety of liver diseases were coded and tested by immune electron microscopy for antibody to these 27-nm particles, seroconversion was demonstrated only in patients with hepatitis A. The presence of crystalline arrays of 27-nm particles in one stool specimen has possible significance in the pathogenesis of hepatitis A.