Figure 2.

Effect of surface gene mutations on HBsAg antigenicity and secretion. (A) Sequence variations within the entire HBsAg protein. The wild-type adr and ayw strains used as positive controls for panels B-D. The 'a'-determinant region was indicated as bold letters. Hyphen means the same amino acid sequences with wild type. Del, deletion. (B-C) ELISA detection of intracellular and secreted HBsAg from HepG2 cells transfected with cloned surface gene obtained from HBsAg loss patients. 10 µl of cell lysates (B) or 100 µl of cell culture media (C) were used for affinity assay. Data presented were the results of three independent experiments. (D) In vitro transcription and translation assay of tested clones.