title: Frequency and distribution of hepatitis B virus genotypes among eastern Indian voluntary blood donors: Association with precore and basal core promoter mutations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To screen hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes and associated basal core promoter (BCP; T1762/A1764) and precore (PreC; A1896) mutations among the HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) positive voluntary blood donors in eastern India.
  
  
  METHODS
  HBV genotypes, BCP and PreC mutations of 141 HBsAg positive voluntary blood donors were determined by the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method and a phylogenetic tree was constructed from surface (S) gene region sequences of representative HBsAg positive donors to confirm the results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HBV/D was the most predominant (79, 56.0%) genotype followed by HBV/C (33, 23.4%) and HBV/A (29, 20.6%). HBV/C infected blood donors are mostly young (18-25 years). The occurrence of BCP mutation was found to be significantly higher in HBV/C (24, 72.7%) than in HBV/A (7, 24.1%, P < 0.001) and HBV/D (17, 21.5%, P < 0.001), whereas PreC mutation was more frequent in HBV/D (28, 35.4%) than in HBV/C (9, 27.3%). However, the simultaneous presence of BCP and PreC mutations was more common in HBV/C (8/33, 24.2%), followed by HBV/D (6/79, 7.6%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In addition to HBV/D and HBV/A, a significant proportion of HBV/C (23.4%) was also present among the voluntary blood donors from eastern India, most frequently in the 18-25 year age group. BCP mutation was more common in HBV/C infected donors.
authors: ICMR Virus Unit, Kolkata, India.
authors: Avik
authors: A
authors: Biswas
authors: Partha K
authors: PK
authors: Chandra
authors: Sibnarayan
authors: S
authors: Datta
authors: Rajesh
authors: R
authors: Panigrahi
authors: Arup
authors: A
authors: Banerjee
authors: Shekhar
authors: S
authors: Chakrabarti
authors: Kalidas
authors: K
authors: Biswas
authors: Dipak
authors: D
authors: Patra
authors: Prasun
authors: P
authors: Bhattacharya
authors: Kuntal
authors: K
authors: Biswas
authors: Runu
authors: R
authors: Chakravarty