Recently a novel hepatitis virus, TT virus (TTV) , has been isolated as a candidate for non A to G hepatitis virus. To elucidate the clinical significance of TTV infection in liver diseases and genotyping assay in Changchun area, the prevalence of TTV infection was studied. TTV DNA was determined by semi-nested PCR. The nucleotide sequences were determined by a dideoxy chain termination method. The phylogenetic analysis was performed by the neighbor-joining methed. TTV DNA was detected in 11 of 26 (42.3%) patients with a diagnosis of non-A-C acute liver diseases, 5 of 11 (45.5%) patients with noB, noC chronic liver diseases, and 8 of 79 (11.4%) blood donors. No statistically significant difference was found in mean age, sex, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, HBV DNA polymerase activity, HCV RNA levels between the patients of TTV DNA positive and the negative patients with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that there were four genotypes which were type la (25%) , type 1b (37.5%) , type 2a (16.7%) , type 2b (20.8%) .TTV DNA was frequent in the patients with non-A to C acute liver diseases and non B to C chronic liver diseases in Changchun area. TT virus coinfection seems not to interfere with the initiation and progression of hepatic injury in chronic liver diseases with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus.
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