Bacterial DNA translocation and liver disease severity among HIV-infected patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Abstract: We carried out a cross-sectional study to explore whetherbacterial 16Sribosomal DNA (bactDNA) shows association with severityof liver disease among human immunode ficiency virus/hepatitis C viruscoinfected patients. Patients with advanced fibrosis (F3/F4), moderateactivity grade (A2/A3), and high fibrosis progression rate (FPR . 0.15)had higher values of plasma bactDNA levels than did patients withoutthese markers of liver disease ( P, 0.05). The chance of having a fibrosisstage or activity grade increased was 1.20 [95% con fidence interval (CI)= 1.0 to 1.44, P = 0.045] and 1.22 (95% CI = 1.1 to 1.45, P = 0.029)times greater for every 100 copies per microliter of plasma bactDNA.Likewise, the odds of having values of FPR . 0.15 was 1.18 (95%CI=0.98to1.42,P = 0.089). In addition, patients with high bactDNAlevels ($175 copies per microliter) had t he highest odds of having highvalues ofMetavir scoreandFPR( P, 0.05). Our data show that bacterialtranslocation is associated with severe liver disease among humanimmunodeficiency virus–infected patients with chronic hepatitis C.Key Words: 16S rDNA, bacterial translocation, hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS, liver biopsy(J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2012;61:552–556)