Mutations of Precore and Proximal Core Regions of Hepatitis B Virus Genome in Serum of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the present study, genetic alterations of precore and proximal core regions (codons 1-50) were determined in HBV isolated from the serum of 58 patients with HCC and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in their serum to identify any role of such genetic changes in HBV genome for hepatocarcinogenesis. DNA extracted form the serum of 16 patients with chronic hepatitis B but no HCC were used as controls. In HCC patients, mutations of T1846, C1858, A1896, and A1899 were identified in 48, 5, 86 and 36%, respectively. A1896 mutation is associated with T1846 and A1899 mutation more frequently in HCC patients than in chronic hepatitis B patients. Fourteen mutations of the proximal core region in HBV genomes from HCC patients were observed in codons 5, 13, 21, 22, 26, 27, 31, 35, and 41. The median number of mutations in the proximal core gene was 7 from HBeAg-negative HCCs, 5 in HBeAg-positive HCCs, and 4 in patients with chronic hepatitis B without HCC. These results suggest that mutations of the precore and proximal core gene sequences may preferentially occur in specific nucleotides and the continuous replication of such mutant HBV might play a role in HBV-related hepatocarcinogenesis. (Hepatology Research 16(1):49-58, 1999)