title: Mutations in hepatitis B virus core regions correlate with hepatocellular injury in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Third Department of Internal Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama city, Japan. h-tana@yf6.so-net.ne.jp
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamagami
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yukawa
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ichinose
authors.forename: Motoshige
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyano
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mimura
authors.forename: Iwao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nishide
authors.forename: Bo-Xin
authors.initials: BX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Su-Wen
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shi-Oing
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Bei-Hai
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens; D000410:Alanine Transaminase