The epidemiology of hepatitis B in hospital personnel was studied by testing of sera from 3,770 employees of the Medical School of Hannover (Hannover, West Germany) for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and its corresponding antibody (anti-HBs) by solid-phase radioimmunoassay. An average prevalence of 2.2% for HBsAg and 11.7% for anti-HBs was found. Physicians (18.2%), nurses (20.1%), and members of the cleaning service (26.3%) showed the highest frequencies of HBsAg or anti-HBs carriage. In a study of age- and sex-matched personnel, nurses showed a significantly (P less than 0.01) higher rate of infection than a control group with less exposure to infectious materials. The frequency of HBsAg or anti-HBs was highest in persons associated with dialysis (31.3%), anesthesiology (31.0%), ophthalmology (29.4%, neurosurgery (28.0%), and surgery (24.4%). The rate of infection was significantly higher in surgical departments (24.4%) than in nonsurgical ones (13.3%). Persons who had been nursing patients with hepatitis were significantly (P less than 0.05) more frequently carriers of HBsAg or anti-HBs than a comparable control group.

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Summary:A new solid-phase antigen immunoassay was developed for the detection of anti-zona pellucidaantibodies. The assay was validated in a double blind study with clinically defmed sera. The new assay is easy to perform and large numbers of sera can be processed in one day. The antigen can be prepared in advance and stored until use. This represents an advantage over other methods, such äs immunofluorescence and RIA, which require fresh antigen preparation for each set of assays. With this new test ca. 7% of females and ca. 20% of males with unexplained infertility have shown elevated antibody concentrations compared with fertile controls. The estimated intra-assay and inter-assay CV were 8.5% and less than 10% respectively.

tients after symptoms had subsided.3 Thus, an antigen was found in feces which seemed to be associated with acute hepatitis and which was detected by anti-SH antisera. A cru¬ cial question is whether the detected fecal antigen indicates infectivity of feces analogous to SH-antigen posi¬ tive sera. Identification of fecal anti¬ gen with SH-antigen as found in sera would clearly be of help. The results obtained by the Ouchterlony method showed that fecal antigen was identi¬ cal or at least shared common anti¬ genic sites with SH-antigen from se¬ rum. Nevertheless, slight differences in specificities of antigen in feces and serum or of the antisera used might decisively influence the results. To gain further information on this

Human brain-specific alphaz-glycoprotein was purified by means of Sepharose immunoadsorbents. A further brain-specific protein was found by this method. This component appears to be present in brain in low concentrations only and has been enriched by affinity chromatography. Glial cells of human brain were separated from neurons by a density centrifugation method and four fractions were obtained: neuropil, neuronal perikarya, nuclei and debris. Each fraction was checked by light and phase contrast microscopy to estimate the intactness of the cells and any contamination by other fractions, and also immunologically for determination of brain-specific alphaz-glycoprotein.The results indicate that localization of this brain-specific protein is in the cytoplasm of the glial cells. The results are discussed in terms of a possible role of this protein in the inflammatory response and in some demyelinating diseases.