HCV, Alcoholic : O-024 ; The association between IL28B polymorphism and the progression of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C = HCV, Alcoholic : O-024 ; The association between IL28B polymorphism and the progression of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background: The genetic variation of IL28B gene on chromosome 19 has relevance to spontaneous seroclearance and virologic response to the interferon based standard therapy of chronic hepatitis C. Up to date, however, it is not clear whether these polymorphisms of IL28B are related with disease progression of chronic hepatitis C. In this study, we aimed to determine the association between IL28B genotype and the stage of fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Methods: A total of 189 patients seropositive for anti-HCV were enrolled, 10 of whom had been spontaneously recovered from infection. Two SNP polymorphism of IL28B, rs8099917 and rs12979860 were investigated using RFMP genotyping and sequencing. The degree of liver fibrosis was determined by liver biopsy in 91 patients who had no definite evidence of cirrhosis in imaging studies. Results: In the whole series, rs12979860 CC, CT, TT genotype were found in 85.7%, 13.8%, 0.5% of patients, respectively, while rs8099917 genotype TT, TG, GG, in 86.2%, 13.2%, 0.5%, respectively. The rs12979860 CC genotype and reciprocative rs8099917 TT genotype were found in 154 of 179 patients with chronic HCV infection and in 9 of 10 spontaneously serocleared patients (86.0% vs. 90.0%, p=0.925). rs12979860 CC genotype was identified in 84.3% of patients with mild to moderate fibrosis (F0-F2) while in 87.7% of patients with advanced fibrosis (F3-4) (p=0.551). In rs8099917 TT genotype, each of them was 85.7% and 86.4% (p=0.901). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, the only significant factor associated with advanced liver fibrosis was age (OR 4.733, p<0.001). Conclusions: In the present study, IL28B polymorphisms (major alleles, rs12979860 CC and rs8099917 TT) were associated neither with spontaneous seroclearance nor with the progression of fibrosis. However, the small sample size of the present study warrants further prospective multicenter study to clearly the role of SNPs in the progression of chronic hepatitis C.