Abstract
THE discovery of Australia antigen (Au), now designated hepatitis B antigen (HBAg), and its association with type B viral hepatitis stimulated application of a variety of serological assays for the detection of HBAg and anti-HBAg in pretransfusion screening of donors' blood and epidemiological work relating to transmission of hepatitis1–6. The reasons for chronic prevalence of HBAg in apparently healthy carriers, who form an epidemiological reservoir of hepatitis B virus (HBV), remain ill-defined. Based on family studies with HBAg, Blumberg et al proposed a hypothesis that the persistence of HBAg for long periods is evidence of a genetic susceptibility which is inherited as a simple recessive trait7,8. The extensive family data, however, included no pedigree with progeny of two parents positive for the antigen. Such a family is crucial to lend validity to the genetical hypothesis. An independent study in Italy supported the hypothesis with certain qualifications9.
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References
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VYAS, G. Evidence against recessive inheritance of susceptibility to the chronic carrier state for hepatitis B antigen. Nature 248, 159–160 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/248159a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/248159a0
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