Putative Association of <i>Fas</i> and <i>FasL</i> Gene Polymorphisms with Clinical Outcomes of Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Vol. 50, No. 5, 2007

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Original Paper

Putative Association of Fas and FasL Gene Polymorphisms with Clinical Outcomes of Hepatitis B Virus Infection
Yong Jin Jung^a, Yoon Jun Kim^a, Lyoung Hyo Kim^b, Soo Ok Lee^b, Byung Lae Park^b, Hyoung Doo Shin^b, Hyo-Suk Lee^a

^aDepartment of Internal Medicine and Liver Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, and
^bDepartment of Genetic Epidemiology, SNP Genetics, Inc., Seoul, Korea

Address of Corresponding Author

Intervirology 2007;50:369-376 (DOI: 10.1159/000109751)

Key Words

Fas
FasL
Polymorphism
Hepatitis B virus
Hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Objective:Fas/FasL polymorphisms, which are related to apoptosis, might influence the clearance of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and the occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study was performed to determine whether Fas and FasL promoter polymorphisms are associated with clinical outcome in chronic HBV infection. Methods: A total of 1,095 Korean subjects were prospectively allocated to two different groups: 'the chronic carrier group' (CC; n = 666), who were repeatedly hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive, and 'the spontaneous recovery group' (SR; n = 429), who were HBsAg-negative with antibodies to HBsAg and hepatitis B core antigen. In addition, the CC group was subcategorized into chronic hepatitis and HCC subgroups. Fas promoter polymorphisms at -1377G>A and -670A>G and the FasL promoter polymorphism at -844C>T were analyzed for and the genotype distributions of subjects were compared. Results: There were no significant associations between Fas or FasL promoter polymorphism with the HBV clearance and HBeAg clearance. However, -1377G>A in Fas promoter region showed protective effect to HCC occurrence (RH = 0.70, p = 0.03). Conclusions:Fas-1377G>A polymorphisms might be involved in the pathogenesis of human HCC.

Author Contacts

Hyo-Suk Lee, MD
Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital
28 Yeongeon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-744 (Korea)
Tel. +82 2 745 7557, Fax +82 2 744 8243
E-Mail hsleemd@snu.ac.kr

Article Information

Y.J.J. and Y.J.K. contributed equally to this work.

Received: March 12, 2007
Accepted after revision: June 25, 2007
Published online: October 15, 2007
Number of Print Pages : 8
Number of Figures : 1, Number of Tables : 5, Number of References : 39

Medline Abstract (ID 17938571)

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