A 76-year-old female with a hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was hospitalized because of fasting hypoglycemia. Her sera contained a low concentration of immunoreactive insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, while the IGF-II level was normal. However, most of the IGF-II consisted of the high molecular weight form (big IGF-II). The tumor tissue contained fetal type ofIGF-II mRNA (6.0 kb). Furthermore, we found that one of the four patients examined with HCV-related HCC had big IGF-II in serum. This indicates that non-islet cell tumor hypoglycemia (NICTH) in HCV-related HCC might be accompanied by production of big IGF-II by the tumor.

Human cytomegalovirus-infected cell polypeptides were immunoreacted by sera of renal transplant recipients and compared with those reactive with sera of healthy adult donors by means of the Western immunoblotting technique. At least 15 polypeptides with molecular weights of 155K, 123K, 102K, 89K, 79K, 71K, 65K, 60K, 55K, 50K, 46K, 42K, 38K, 33K, and 28K were immunoreacted. Sera obtained serially from renal transplant recipients reacted with most of these polypeptides and reacted more frequently and intensely with the smaller polypeptide species such as 38K, 33K, and 28K, compared with sera of healthy seropositive adults. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Sixty-eight paediatric patients with malignant tumours or leukaemia were followed for signs of infection with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) over 1 year. HCMV was isolated from 24 out of 68 patients at some point during the observation period; from urine in 14, from both urine and throat in 9 patients, and from throat alone in 1 patient. Previous antibody analysis indicated the presence of HCMV antibodies in 10 of the 24 virus-shedding patients, while 7 patients were seronegative and 7 undefined. Thus the incidence of reactivation appears to be higher than that of primary infection in these immunocompromised patients. The mean duration of virus shedding was 4.2 months in the primary infection group, 1.7 months in the reactivation group and 1.1 months in the undefined group. No difference in the incidence of HCMV-associated illness was observed between patients with leukaemia and those with malignant tumours. Clinical symptoms associated with HCMV infection (pneumonia (2), fever (6) and hepatitis (1)) were observed in all patients with primary infections and in only five patients with reactivated infection.