title: The genotype C could play a key role in hepatitis B virus associated nephritis among the northwest Chinese children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) is a kind of immune complex-induced glomerulonephritis. The present study was designed to determine whether Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype is associated with glomerulonephritis in north-west Chinese children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 296 HBV-infected patients were enrolled in this study. The serum of patients was subjected to DNA extraction and the HBV genotypes were determined by PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that genotype C (49%) was predominant within the subjects, compared to HBV/B (38.5%), B/C recombinant (7.4%) and none B/C (5.1%). The serum tests showed that the changes of Complement 3 (C3) and alanine amino transferase (ALT) levels in the genotype C patients were significantly greater than those in the genotype B patients. The frequency of genotype C in HBV-GN patients was higher than that in non HBV-GN patients (χ2 value=30.239, P<0.001). But, it was not associated with renal dysfunction. Furthermore, The genotype C was associated with high HBV-DNA load (82.9% vs 17.1%, P<0.001), which is seen more frequently in the HBV-GN children (86.3% vs 13.3%, P=0.004).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The genotype C may play a role in HBV-GN children, via favoring HBV replication.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Department, Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou City, 730000, China. Electronic address: leixiaoyan317@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Julan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yonghong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yipa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sai
authors.forename: Wenping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D003176:Complement C3 / Q000276:immunology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D003176:Complement C3; D004279:DNA, Viral; D000410:Alanine Transaminase
keywords: genotype; hepatitis B virus; nephritis