Relation between HCV genotypes and the prevalence of antibodies against 5-1-1 and C100-3 in Japanese blood donors seropositive for hepatitis C virus

Abstract Most of the HCV carriers in Japan have been classified as either genotype II (type II) or genotype III (type III). We tested type II and type III HCV seropositive donor sera against various HCV-related antigen epitopes using a second generation recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA-II). Of 30 type II samples, 21 (70%) were positive for the antibody against 5-1-1, compared to three out of 30 (10.0%) type III samples ( P P