distribution of hepatitis c virus genotype among hcv infected patients in golestan province, iran

background: hepatitis c virus (hcv) is one of the main causative factors of liver disease which can lead to chronic hepatitis c infection in 80% of cases. hcv genotypes have a special worldwide geographic distribution. the goal of the present study was to detect hcv genotypes in patients with anti-hcv positive titers in golestan province, iran. materials and methods: in this cross-sectional study, 95 positive hcv samples as detected by riba were evaluated. viral rna was extracted with a roche extraction kit and the fermentase cdna kit random hexamer primers was used for viral genomic cdna synthesis. pcr was performed on all samples by a general pair of primers. second-step pcr was done with specific primers, and the results were obtained following electrophoresis in 1.5% agarose gel and ethidium bromide staining in documentation gel. results: general primer pcr revealed 91 positive samples. assessment of 77 samples determined that the following genotypes were present: 1 and 3 [1a (19.5%), 1b (19.5%), 3a (15.6%), 3b (24.7%)], 2a (2.6%), 4 (7.8%). the remaining samples were a mixture of genotypes 1 and 3 (6.5%). conclusion: the ingmost prevalent genotypes found were types 1 and 3 in golestan province. this distribution pattern differed from other areas in iran, however genotype 4 was in accordance with other studies. genotype 2 was only reported in this study and a study in tehran. thus, additional, larger studies of hcv genotypes should be performed for further analysis of genotypic distribution patterns.