Genotypes of hepatitis C virus in Guangxi Province, southern China |
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| Authors: | HIROYASU OKUNO,,ZHI-CHUN XIE&dagger ,BONG-YU LU&Dagger ,XUE QIN§ ,SHINTARO FUKUSHIMA,TOSHIYA HIROTA,YASUKO SHIOZAKI,KYOICHI INOUE |
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| Affiliation: | *Third Department of Internal Medicine, Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan;†Departments of Epidemiology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China;‡Departments of Surgery, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China;§Departments of Clinical Tests, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China |
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| Abstract: | Abstract Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been subdivided into at least four genotypes, and the prevalence of each genotype has been reported to differ widely in different countries. Of 304 patients with chronic liver diseases (68 with chronic hepatitis, 50 with liver cirrhosis and 186 with hepatocellular carcinoma) from Guangxi Province in southern China, only 9 (3.0%) had antibodies to HCV as determined by a second-generation enzyme immunoassay with a cut-off index of 2.0 or more. The HCV genotypes of these nine cases were examined using polymerase chain reaction with type-specific primers deduced from putative core gene. Seven of the nine cases had type II infection and the other two cases showed double infection with types II and IV. These findings indicate that the predominant HCV genotype in the Guangxi area is type II, as is the case in Japan, although the prevalence of HCV infection in patients with chronic liver diseases is much lower. |
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| Keywords: | genotypes hepatitis C virus polymerase chain reaction southern China type-specific primers |
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