Absence of infection in breast-fed infants born to hepatitis C virus-infected mothers☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
Subjects
Between April 1992 and January 1993, we recruited 15 carrier mothers with anti-HCV antibody from among 40 pregnant HCV carriers described in our previous studies, 5, 6 and 3 healthy mothers as control subjects. Maternal blood, 10 ml, and colostrum, 10 ml, were taken from each subject within 5 days post partum. For colostral samples, the yellowish fat in the top layer was removed after centrifugation at 1000g and 4° C for 30 minutes, and the supernatant was collected.7 The precipitate was washed
RESULTS
All 15 mothers with, and the three mothers without, anti-HCV antibody had no anti-HIV antibody. The anti-HCV and HCV-RNA titers for maternal serum and colostrum are shown in the Table. The reciprocal anti-HCV titers of the 15 carrier mothers ranged from 1:80 to 1:40,000, and serum HCV-RNA was present in all; the three healthy mothers had negative results. By the competitive PCR assay, HCV-cDNA concentrations in the 15 maternal sera ranged from 104 to 2.5 × 108 copies/ml. Comparing anti-HCV
DISCUSSION
In contrast to previous studies indicating that HCV-RNA cannot be detected in the milk of HCV carrier mothers,2, 3 our data show that both anti-HCV antibodies and HCV-RNA were present in the colostrum of HCV carrier mothers without HIV coinfection. Although the exact causes of this discrepancy remain unclear, it might be explained by the difference in primer pairs used3 or by the higher HCV-cDNA concentrations (104 to 108 copies/ml) in our carrier mothers.2
Concerning the amount of virus in both
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Hepatitis C virus RNA in saliva and breast milk of hepatitis C carrier mothers [Letter]
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Hepatology
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Comparison of three different immunoassays and PCR for the detection of hepatitis C virus infection in pregnant women in Taiwan
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From the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics, Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine and Hepatitis Research Center, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Rebublic of China
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Supported by the National Science Council (NSC82-0419-B-002-394-MC), Executive Yuan, Republic of China.
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Reprint requests: Ding-Shinn Chen, MD, Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 7, Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei, Taiwan 100, Republic of China.
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