3. e Antigen and Its Antibodies

3. e Antigen and Its Antibodies

In 1972, Swedish scholar Magnis accidentally discovered a new antigen while examining the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and named it e Antigen. In 1974, Nielon repeated the experiment and tested 500 cases of acute hepatitis B, 100 cases of chronic active hepatitis B, 13 cases of cirrhosis, 23 healthy carriers, and 96 individuals with negative Surface Antigen for e Antigen. The results showed that 10% of acute cases were e Antigen positive, 58% of chronic cases were e Antigen positive, 31% of cirrhosis cases were e Antigen positive, and 34% of healthy carriers were e Antigen positive. From this, it was concluded that: ① e Antigen-positive individuals are more likely to develop chronic active hepatitis; ② e Antigen-positive individuals have more Zai En particles in their serum; ③ long-term carriers have a higher e Antigen positivity rate. In recent years, many scholars have proven that the transition from e Antigen positivity to e Antibody positivity is a very important indicator of improvement in the hepatitis B pathological process. When first infected with hepatitis B, e Antigen is usually positive, and about 90% of patients can eventually turn e Antigen negative, resulting in good prognosis and rarely progressing to chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, or liver cancer. Conversely, about 10% of patients never manage to turn e Antigen negative, leading to poorer prognoses, potentially developing cirrhosis or liver cancer, with most ultimately becoming chronic active hepatitis. Some have performed liver biopsies on e Antigen-positive patients and found that their liver tissue shows continuous damage, and the transition from e Antigen negativity to e Antibody positivity often occurs simultaneously. Others have observed a positive correlation between e Antigen positivity and Surface Antigen titration, as well as between e Antigen positivity and deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase activity.