Detection of TT virus and sequence analysis of partial gene of TTV in sera from blood donors

  Objective   To investigate TTV infection and analyse the gene sequence of blood donors in Zhanjiang.

  Methods   480 sera samples from blood donors with normal transaminase and DNA of 60 sera samples with abnormal transaminase were extracted using the methods of SDS and proteinase K.The TTV infection and sequence analysis of the virus gene were performed by nested-PCR and cloning sequencing methods.

  Results   52 of 480(10.83%)sera samples with normal transaminase levels were positive for TTV DNA.There were significant difference between them(χ²=9.847, P < 0.01).The sequence analysis showed that there were above 97% nucleotide identity among AB008394(from Japan), TTV CH1(from China)and the 5 isolated cases.

  Conclusion   There existed TTV infection among blood donors in Zhanjiang.TTV might be transmitted by blood transfusion.