title: [The incidence rate of hepatitis B virus surface gene variants in Korean children with immunoprophylaxis failure of perinatal infection].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Perinatal infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) may occur despite immunoprophylaxis. One of the important mechanisms for perinatal prophylaxis failure, might include HBV surface gene variants. Therefore, we screened Korean children, in whom perinatal prophylaxis failed, for HBV surface gene variants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-one children with perinatal HBV prophylaxis failure were selected. To amplify the major hydrophilic region of the HBV surface gene, nested PCR with primers targeted to nucleotides 237 to 706 was performed, and then sequencing was done.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All cases were shown to be PCR positive for HBV-DNA and genotype C. Nine out of 31 (29%) with perinatal prophylaxis failure had a nucleotide substitution at the major hydrophilic region of the gene; but only two cases (6.5%) had an amino acid substitution. One case was infected by wild type and variants of I126S, and the other by wild type and S114A+I126S, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Korea, compared to the previous studies of other nations, gene surface variants such as G145R do not appear to play an important role in perinatal immunoprophylaxis failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. jh00mn@catholic.ac.kr
authors.forename: Jong-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dae Kyun
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Jae Kyun
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hur
authors.forename: Jin Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Omana V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Nainan
authors.forename: Harold S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Margolis
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D014611:Vaccination
chemical_list: D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines