Clinical significance of hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore and core promoter mutations affecting HBV e-antigen expression and their association with liver disease progression / 中国医师杂志

Objective To investigate the association of hepatitis B virus ( HBV) precore ( preC) /C mutations with the pro-gression of liver disease .Methods The HBV genes of 50 chronic hepatitis B , including 30 HBV e-antigen ( HBeAg)-negative and 20 HBeAg-positive patients, were detected with real-time quantification polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the direct sequencing method.Results The mutations T1762/A176, T1766/A1768, A1896 , and the levels of HBV viral loads significantly correlated with the disease progression .The HBeAg-negative patients had a higher frequency of mutations at T 1762/A1764 , T1766/A1768 , and A 1896 relative to HBeAg-positive patients .Conclusions Patients with advanced liver diseases and with HBeAg-negativity possibly had multi-mutations at T1762/A1764, T1766/A1768, and A1896 in HBV genomes.

Study on tumor formation of HBV X gene-transformed hepatocyte in nude mice / 中国医师杂志

Objective To investigate whether HBx alone is sufficient to directly transform the nontransformed immortalized human liver cell line QSG7701 and induce hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo,and to explore preliminarily the pathogenic mechanism of transplantation tumor in nude mice.Methods The pCMVX/QSG7701 cells were vaccinated into subcutaneous tissue of nude mice.The pRcCMV2/QSG7701 and QSG7701 Cells were used as control.At the fifth weeks after vaccination,the nude mice were killed to observe whether a tumor was formed.The activity state and food intake of the nude mice was recorded.The texture,volume,and metastasis of transplantation tumor were observed grossly.The transplantation tumor was observed microscopically on the hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining section.Immunohistochemical surfactant protein (SP) method was used to analyze the protein expression of mutant p53 and C-Myc genes.Results The transplantation tumor was occurred in all of the six nude mice vaccinated with pCMVX/QSG7701 cells at the second week after vaccination.No metastatic tumor was found in other organs.Transplanted tumor was not formed in all of the negative control groups.HE staining analysis confirmed that the character of transplanted tumor was hepatocellular carcinoma.p53 and C-Myc proteins were expressed in pCMVX/QSG7701,pRcCMV2/QSG7701,and QSG7701 cells,and their expression levels in the pCMVX/QSG7701 cells were significantly higher than those in the pRcCMV2/QSG7701 and QSG7701 cells,respectively(P ＜0.01).Conclusions HBx alone is sufficient to directly transform the non-transformed immortalized human liver cell line QSG7701 and induce hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo through up-regulating the expression of mutant p53 and C-Myc genes.