Mutation of hepatitis B virus DNA pre-C region in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma in Guangxi

Objective To study the association between mutation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) pre C gene and HBV infection in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC) but negative hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in Guangxi Province, China. Methods Nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) was used for amplification of HBV DNA Pre C region in sera collected from 16 patients with PHC in Guangxi, and then their HBV DNA nPCR products were sequenced by Sanger method. Results Sera in fourteen of 16 patients showed positive HBV DNA, with a positive proportion of 87.5% (14/16). One (C23) of them was positive for HBeAg; one (C24) was negative HBeAg, but with normal sequence in his Pre C region; two (C7, C14) were co infected with HBV wild and mutant strains; and the remainder eight cases (C3、 C4、 C5、 C8、 C10、 C11、 C12、 C13) were infected with mutant virus strains, but stop codon at codon 28 was only found in C4, C5 and C12. One case (C8) was co infected with both HBV stop codon mutant and non stop codon strains. Conclusion It is uncommon for patients with PHC in Guangxi infected with HBV mutant strain with classical mutation at nt 1 896, which suggests that maybe there exist other types of mutation other than that in pre C region causing HBV infection without HBeAg.