ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To understand the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype distribution in Yantai district of Shandong province, and to explore whether the HCV genotypes was relevant to the injure of liver through the index of liver function.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Using specific PCR primers to amplify the HCV RNA 5' UTR/NS5B,then PCR products were sequenced by genetic analyzer. The genotypes were identified by alignment to the GenBank reference sequences and construction the phylogenetic tree of 5' UTR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among 9 unpaid blood donors we detected two kinds of genotypes of 1b and 3a, respectively, 8 cases (88.9%) and 1 case (11.1%). Among 33 cases of hepatitis C patients we detected the 1b, 2a and 6a the three kinds of genotypes, respectively, 22 (66.7%), 10 (30.3%) and 1 (3.03%) cases. Subtype 1b is the advantage of popular genotype in HCV carriers from Yantai district, and the distribution of 1b was no significant difference in the different population (chi2 = 0.796, P = 0.373); The difference of indicator of liver damage in the different genotypes of subjects were significant (P < 0.05), the mean of ALT, AST of 2a-subtype carriers was significantly higher than the 1b-subtype population.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The genetic diversity of HCV in Shandong Yantai district was presented. The main genotypes were 1b-subtype, and 3a and 6a-subtype was detected firstly. The genotype of HCV were relevant to the liver damage indicators, 2a-subtype hepatitis C virus infection in the liver cells may play an important role in the disease process.</p>