BACKGROUND Several hepatitis B viral factors correlate with the progression of chronic liver disease. However, the independent and interactive effects of each known viral factor on the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain largely unknown. METHODS In a cross-sectional, retrospective, hospital-based setting, we comprehensively compared viral factors in 160 chronic hepatitis B vi...

Several recent reports have shown that hepatitis B virus (HBV) could be frequently transmitted to the recipients from donors who have antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) through liver transplantation. We provide here the molecular evidence of latent HBV infection accompanied with ongoing viral replication in the liver tissue of anti-HBc-positive healthy individuals. HBV DNA was de...

Ten patients who suffered from acute hepatitis with various clinical forms due to hepatitis B virus (HBV) were studied. HBV variants with a mutation in the precore region were dominant in two patients with fulminant hepatitis and in a patient with the most severe acute hepatitis. However, these mutant viruses were not detected in a patient who had the fulminant form of acute HBV infection on ch...

The function of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore or HBeAg is largely unknown because it is not required for viral assembly, infection, or replication. However, the HBeAg does appear to play a role in viral persistence. It has been suggested that the HBeAg may promote HBV chronicity by functioning as an immunoregulatory protein. As a model of chronic HBeAg exposure and to examine the toleroge...

Occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been reported in 30% to 50% of patients with acute liver failure (ALF) in small case series. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of occult HBV infection in a large series of ALF patients in the United States and the prevalence of precore and core promoter variants in patients with ALF caused by hepatitis B. Sera from patients in the...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS To investigate the prevalence and pattern of PC and BCP mutations and their clinical significance in patients with genotype D chronic hepatitis B infection in the Fars province of southern Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS From January 2007 to March 2008, we evaluated 44 patients with chronic hepatitis B infection who were referred to our hepatology clinics affiliated with the S...

The nuclear hormone receptors hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (HNF4) and the retinoid X (RXR ) plus the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR ) heterodimer support hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication in nonhepatoma cells. Hepatocyte nuclear factor 3 (HNF3) inhibits nuclear hormone receptor-mediated viral replication. Inhibition of HBV replication by HNF3 is associated with the preferenti...

Twenty-one hepatitis B virus (HBV) isolates from the state of Haryana (North India) were studied for genotype, subgenotype, serotype distribution and precore mutations. Assays of alanine aminotransminase (ALT) and HBeAg were performed on all samples. Genotypes, subgenotypes and serotypes were determined by amplification of pre-S1/S2 regions followed by RFLP and also by phylogenetic analysis of ...

BACKGROUND We sought to investigate the role of sequence variations in pre-S/surface and basal core promoter (BCP)/precore regions of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS The direct sequencing in pre-S/surface and BCP/precore regions of HBV was determined for 80 patients with HCC and 160 control patients with HBV infection. RESULTS Compared with control pat...

A method for genotyping hepatitis B virus by partial HBsAg gene sequencing with primers common to all known genotypes was developed. Mutations related to anti-HBs resistance are also detected with this method. Samples from 103 Brazilian patients were analyzed. Precore and core region of these viruses were also sequenced in 101 patients. Genotypes A, B, C, D, and F were found with frequencies of...