Molecular Detection of TTV DNA in Chronic Hepatitis Patients from A Hospital in Kerman, Iran

A novel human DNA virus, TT virus (TTV), was first discovered in the sera of three Japanese patients with post transfusion hepatitis in 1997. TTV is a non-enveloped, single stranded virus related to the Circoviridae family. TT virus DNA was investigated in serum samples of 100 patients with various types of chronic hepatitis, and 100 healthy subjects from Kerman, Iran by nested PCR using the primers that belonged to UTR (A) region of the genome. Serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were also determined. TTV DNA was detected in 4 % of healthy population, 12 % of type-B hepatitis patients, and 21 % of typeC hepatitis patients with liver disease. TTV infections are more frequently found in patients infected or hepatitis C virus (HCV) than general population. However, no significant association between TTV infection and liver injury has been reported.