Mutations in hepatitis B virus core regions correlate with hepatocellular injury in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B.
OBJECTIVE
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Tanaka
Hiroto
H
Third Department of Internal Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama city, Japan. h-tana@yf6.so-net.ne.jp
Ueda
Hiroki
H
Hamagami
Hiroko
H
Yukawa
Susumu
S
Ichinose
Masakazu
M
Miyano
Motoshige
M
Mimura
Keiji
K
Nishide
Iwao
I
Zhang
Bo-Xin
BX
Wang
Su-Wen
SW
Zhou
Shi-Oing
SO
Li
Bei-Hai
BH
D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D004279:DNA, Viral; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens; D000410:Alanine Transaminase