Molecular epidemiology of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes and serotypes in patients with chronic HBV infection in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
Although hepatitis B virus (HBV) is endemic to Korea, no large-scale survey of HBV genotypes and serotypes based on sequence analysis has been performed.


METHODS
In the present study, we genotyped and serotyped HBV strains from 209 patients in two Korean regions, Seoul (107 patients) and Jeju (102 patients), an island off the southeastern Korean coast. Analyses were conducted using the direct sequencing method targeting the partial surface (S) gene (541 bp).


RESULTS
Phylogenetic analysis showed that all HBV strains from the 209 patients belonged to genotype C2 (100%). Of the 209 patients, 193 (92.3%), 12 (5.7%) and 1 (0.5%) were found to have the adr, adw and ayr serotypes, respectively. The other three strains (1.5%) showed unique serotype and were not typeable by sequence analysis. No HBV strains characteristic of Jeju island were observed.


CONCLUSIONS
The extraordinary predominance of genotype C2 in chronic Korean patients, which is known to be associated with more severe liver disease than genotype B, suggests that the clinical manifestations of Korean HBV chronic patients are likely to differ from those found in other Asian countries, especially in Japan and Taiwan, where genotypes B and C coexist.
Kim
Hong
H
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Liver Research Institute and Cancer Research Institute, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Jee
Young Mee
YM
Song
Byung-Cheol
BC
Shin
Jung Woo
JW
Yang
Soo Hyun
SH
Mun
Ho-Suk
HS
Kim
Hyun-Ju
HJ
Oh
Eun-Ju
EJ
Yoon
Jung-Hwan
JH
Kim
Yoon-Jun
YJ
Lee
Hyo-Suk
HS
Hwang
Eung-Soo
ES
Cha
Chang-Yong
CY
Kook
Yoon-Hoh
YH
Kim
Bum-Joon
BJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012703:Serotyping