title: Hepatitis B virus genotype C prevails among chronic carriers of the virus in Korea.
abstract: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the major causative agents of chronic liver diseases in Korea. HBV has been classified into 8 genotypes by a divergence of >8% in the entire genomic sequence, and have distinct geographic distributions. There are limited data on the relevance between HBV genotypes and clinical outcomes in Korea. To investigate the clinical feature relating to HBV genotype in Korea, a total 120 serum samples with HBsAg (65 from Seoul and 55 from the other city in Korea) were obtained from each 30 chronic HBV carriers with asymptomatic carrier (ASC), chronic hepatitis (CH), liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV genotype was determined by either enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using monoclonal antibodies against genotype-specific epitopes in the preS2-region or the direct sequencing of small S gene. HBV genotypes were determined in 105 (87.5%) of 120 samples. HBV genotype C was identified in all HBV carriers with ASC, CH, LC, and HCC. Genotypes A, B, D, E, F and G were not detected in any of them. Genotype C HBV prevails predominantly among chronic carriers of the virus in Korea, irrespective of their clinical stages of liver disease and geographic origin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Si Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Seung Kew
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Jeong Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Chang Wook
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soon Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: Jong Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Boo Sung
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Young Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Fuminaka
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sugauchi
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mizokami
mesh_terms: D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors