Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2018; 10(3): 352-370
Published online Mar 27, 2018. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i3.352
Reactivation of hepatitis B after liver transplantation: Current knowledge, molecular mechanisms and implications in management
Ranjit Chauhan, Shilpa Lingala, Chiranjeevi Gadiparthi, Nivedita Lahiri, Smruti R Mohanty, Jian Wu, Tomasz I Michalak, Sanjaya K Satapathy
Ranjit Chauhan, Tomasz I Michalak, Molecular Virology and Hepatology Research Group, Division of BioMedical Sciences, Health Sciences Centre, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL A1B 3V6, Canada
Shilpa Lingala, Chiranjeevi Gadiparthi, Sanjaya K Satapathy, Division of Transplant Surgery, Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN 38104, United States
Nivedita Lahiri, Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Smruti R Mohanty, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatobiliary Disease, New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY 11215, United States
Jian Wu, Department of Medical Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Fudan University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
Author contributions: Chauhan R, Lingala S and Gadiparthi C wrote the first draft; Chauhan R, Lingala S and Satapathy SK revised the manuscript with intellectual input from Lahiri N, Mohanty SR, Wu J and Michalak TI; all authors participated in additional discussions and revision of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no potential conflicts of interest related to this manuscript. This manuscript is not supported by any grants/funding.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sanjaya K Satapathy, MBBS, MD, DM, FACG, FASGE, AGAF, Associate Professor, Division of Transplant Surgery, Methodist University Hospital, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, 1211 Union Avenue, Suite #340, Memphis, TN 38104, United States. ssatapat@uthsc.edu
Telephone: +1-901-5160929 Fax: +1-901-5168994
Received: October 16, 2017
Peer-review started: November 2, 2017
First decision: November 27, 2017
Revised: January 27, 2018
Accepted: February 9, 2018
Article in press: February 9, 2018
Published online: March 27, 2018
Processing time: 145 Days and 6.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Aim of this review is to summarize the current concepts and management of hepatitis B after liver transplantation (LT). There are no clear guidelines regarding hepatitis B therapy after transplantation. Hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) is expensive and cumbersome to administer and there is no definite time point for discontinuation of HBIG after LT. Here we summarize the indications and duration of hepatitis B immunoglobulin and nucleoside analogs. This review also addresses key molecular mechanisms and the risk factors which are associated with hepatitis B virus reactivation post LT. This review provides up-to-date information not only for the liver transplant specialists but also for the virologists and scientists working in this field.