FIGURE 3.

Subcellular localization of positive signals in hepatocytes throughout the natural course of chronic HBV infection. (A) Representative images of hepatocytes that have positive signals in both the cytoplasm and nucleus (solid arrow), and hepatocytes that have positive signals in the nucleus only (hollow arrow). HBV DNA signals appeared to be sand-like in the cytoplasm and punctate in the nucleus, while HBV RNA signals appeared to be sand-like (solid arrow) or punctate (slash arrow) in the cytoplasm and punctate in the nucleus (×400). (B) The percentage of cells whose HBV RNA-positive and DNA-positive signals were only distributed in the nucleus in all kinds of positive cells. Abbreviations: IA, immune-active; IC, inactive chronic hepatitis B; IT, immune-tolerant; NS, nonsignificant.