[A study on correlation of changing proportion of L:M:S due to the variation of HBV PreS genes and liver injury]

Objective: In order to study the correlation between the changing proportion of L:M:S due to the variation of HBV PreS genes and the liver injury.
Methods: We selected three groups of HBV-infected individuals, including acute infection with complete recovery, chronic HBV carriers and chronic severe hepatitis B, each consisting of three cases. The preS genes were amplified from serum samples with half nested PCR. The PCR products were cloned into M13 vectors, and 10 clones were randomly selected for each person and sequenced with routine methods. A total of 90 clones were sequenced and analyzed by DNA homology comparison.
Results: We found that there were significant characteristics in HBV-infected individuals with different clinical consequences. (1)Acute hepatitis B: normal proportion of L:M:S, Slightly higher M protein was found in one patient. (2)Chronic HBV carriers: Higher proportion of L:M:S was found by which M protein synthesis decreased. (3)Chronic severe hepatitis B: HBV and deletion of large fragment of preS1 gene may induce abnormally high immunity response, and then cause severe liver injury in these patients.
Conclusion: These results provide some experimental facts that the possible association between changing proportion of L:M:S and liver injury could be wholly explored.