Viral Hepatitis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2005. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2005; 11(30): 4693-4696
Published online Aug 14, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i30.4693
Mutations in hepatitis B virus core regions correlate with hepatocellular injury in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B
Hiroto Tanaka, Hiroki Ueda, Hiroko Hamagami, Susumu Yukawa, Masakazu Ichinose, Motoshige Miyano, Keiji Mimura, Iwao Nishide, Bo-Xin Zhang, Su-Wen Wang, Shi-Oing Zhou, Bei-Hai Li
Hiroto Tanaka, Hiroki Ueda, Hiroko Hamagami, Susumu Yukawa, Masakazu Ichinose, The Third Department of Internal Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, 811-1 Kimiidera Wakayama City, Wakayama 641-0012, Japan
Motoshige Miyano, Keiji Mimura, Iwao Nishide, Nishide Hospital, 236 Umizuka, Kaizuka City, Osaka 597-0083, Japan
Bo-Xin Zhang, Su-Wen Wang, Shi-Oing Zhou, Bei-Hai Li, Jinan Central Hospital, 105 Jiefang Road, Jinan 250013, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Hiroto Tanaka, MD, PhD, Horidomenishi 1-4-28, Wakayama city, Japan. h-tana@yf6.so-net.ne.jp
Telephone: +81-73-426-4467 Fax: +81-73-426-4467
Received: October 29, 2004
Revised: December 15, 2004
Accepted: December 20, 2004
Published online: August 14, 2005
Abstract

AIM: To elucidate the relationship between the frequency of core mutations and the clinical activity of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver disease and to characterize the amino acid changes in the core region of HBV.

METHODS: We studied 17 Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B according to their clinical courses and patterns of the entire core region of HBV.

RESULTS: Amino acid changes often appeared in the HBV core region of the HBV gene in patients with high values of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or with the seroconversion from HbeAg to anti-HBe. The HBV core region with amino acid changes had high frequency sites that corresponded to HLA I/II restricted recognition epitopes reported by some investigators.

CONCLUSION: The core amino acid changes of this study occur due to influence of host immune system. The presence of mutations in the HBV core region seems to be important for predicting the clinical activity of hepatitis B in Chinese patients.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; Core region; Mutation; Serum ALT; DNA sequences; HBe antigen; Chronic hepatitis B; Activity