Hepatitis C genotypes in liver transplant recipients: Distribution and 1-year follow-up

✍ Scribed by Zein, Nizar N. ;Rakela, Jorge ;Poterucha, John J. ;Steers, Jeffery L. ;Wiesner, Russell H. ;Persing, David H.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 355 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1074-3022
• DOI: 10.1002/lt.500010603

✦ Synopsis

Chronic hepatitis C infection (CH-C) accounts for a significant number of patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Recently, hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype-dependent differences in disease outcome and therapeutic responses have been suggested. The objectives of our study were to determine (1) the recurrence of HCV infection after OLT; (2) distribution of HCV genotypes in patients with CH-C who required liver transplantation compared with those who did not; and (3) the 1-year transplantation outcome in patients infected with different hepatitis C genotypes. RNA was extracted from sera of 20 patients who underwent OLT for end-stage liver disease secondary to CH-C (group I) and 52 patients with CH-C who did not require OLT (group 11). For viral RNA detection, reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction (RT/PCR) of 5'UT region was performed on all OLT patients both before and after OLT. For genotyping, RT-PCR of the NS 5 region was performed, followed by automated sequencing of the amplification products. Nineteen OLT patients had viral RNA detected by PCR nfection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has I been identified as the major cause of posttransfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis. 1 ~2 Chronic liver disease occurs in about 50% of patients with acute HCV infection, and cirrhosis develops in 20% of these ~a t i e n t s . ~ Therefore, chronic hepatitis C infection (CH-C) accounts for a significant number of patients with end-stage liver disease undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Recently, it has been discovered that HCV is not a single virus but a family of related viral genotypes based on nucleotide sequence analysis of several viral genetic determinant^.^