New Determinants of Hepatitis B Antigen (Au or HB Antigen)

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Abstract
261 HB antigens were subtyped for d and y. In the healthy carriers, 63 were found to be ad and 75 were ay. In the patients with acute hepatitis, 24 were ad and 33 ay (6 were ad and 2 ay in chronic hepatitis). Among haemodialyzed patients, 50 were ay and only 6 were ad. In 2 of these renal patients, we found a true association of ad and ay (ady). The w and r determinants were detected in 63 of these 261 HB antigens. 61 were w (33 ayw, 26 adw and 2 adyw), only 2 were w negative (I ayr and 1 adr).In the course of this study, several abnormalities: reactions of some ay with anti‐d sera, peculiar behaviour of an antiserum from Dakar which was responsible for the formation of spurs between some ay (and three ad) over all other HB antigens could not be explained by the w and r determinants. This and other observations (especially selected absorptions) led us to subdivide the ay into three categories (1, 2 and 3) and the ad into two categories (4 and 5). A sixth category consisted of the genuine association of ad and ay (ady).The observation that ay of category 3 and ad of category 5 behaved similarly in absorption studies and with the antiserum ‘Dakar’, led us to conclude that the common a determinant was heterogeneous and included 3 subdeterminants: al, a2 and a3, of decreasing antigenic strength. The five categories observed were interpreted as follows: (1) aly, healthy carriers from Vietnam; (2) a2y, healthy carriers, niainly Caucasians, and all the ay patients; (3) a3y, healthy carriers, mainly Africans; (4) a2d the great majority of ad carriers and patients, and (5) a3d, only 3 cases (see text). These new subdeterminants are discussed and compared with the determinants already described by other investigators.