ABSTRACT
Objective To quantitatively analyze total hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA (HBV tDNA),covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) and HBsAg in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB),HBV-related liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),and to analyze the characteristics.Methods HBV tDNA and HBV cccDNA in the serum and liver biopsy samples were measured in 21 CHB,23 LC and 25 HCC patients by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. HBsAg titer was measured by chemiluminescence. Normally distributed variables among multiple groups were analyzed by ANOVA and t-test.Correlation between two variables was tested using Pearson correlation analysis.Skewed distribution was tested using Rank sum test.Results In CHB,LC and HCC patients,the serum HBV tDNA levels were (5.38±2.08),(4.96± 1.65) and (4.18 ± 0.91) lg copy/mL,respectively; the intrahepatic HBV tDNA levels in three groups were (7.18±1.91),(6.51±1.87) and (5.87± 1.47) lg copy/ug,respectively; the intrahepatic HBV cccDNA levels were (3.53±2.03),(2.63±2.13) and (0.58± 1.40) lg copy/μg,respectively; the serum HBsAg levels were (3.30±0.65),(3.12±0.52) and (2.60± 1.03) lg IU/mL,respectively.In CHB patients,the serum HBV tDNA,intrahepatic HBV tDNA,HBV cccDNA and HBsAg levels were all significantly higher than those of HCC patients (t=2.446,P=0.013; t=2.562,P=0.014;t=5.799,P＜0.01 ; t=2.709,P=0.003,respectively).However,only intrahepatic HBV cccDNA and HBsAg levels were statistically different between LC and HCC patients (t=-3.894,P＜0.01;t=-2.237,P=0.023,respectively).HBV cccDNA was all negative in the serum of 69 patients.The serum HBsAg level was positively correlated with serum HBV tDNA (r=0.290,P=0.016),intrahepatic HBV tDNA (r=0.372,P =0.002) and intrahepatic HBV cccDNA (r=0.378,P=0.001).Conclusions The levels of HBV tDNA,HBV cccDNA and HBsAg decrease gradually with the disease progression.The serum HBsAg level is positively correlated with serum HBV tDNA,intrahepatic HBV tDNA and intrahepatic HBV cccDNA.