title: Quantitative detection of hepatitis C virus genome in liver tissue and circulation by competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: We quantified hepatitis C virus RNA in 25 Japanese patients with chronic type C liver disease by competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The amount of the viral RNA in the serum (2 x 10(5)-2 x 10(8) copies/ml) correlated with that in the liver tissue (10(8)-10(11) copies/g) (N = 23, r = 0.727, P < 0.0001). One gram of the infected liver tissue contained 10(2)-10(4) (geometric mean, 10(3), N = 23) times as many copies of the viral RNA as did 1 ml of the serum. Liver tissues of chronic aggressive hepatitis contained significantly higher amounts of the viral RNA than those of chronic persistent hepatitis (P < 0.05). These observations suggested that this method is useful to evaluate viral amount, and the amount of the circulating hepatitis C virus RNA could be used as a marker of the intrahepatic viral amounts, which might contribute to disease activity.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Internal Medicine, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimomura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasui
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuji
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase