Showing papers by "University of Johannesburg published in 1994"

Rate of Persistence, Structure, and Expression of HBV Genome in HCC Developing in HBsAg-negative Patients

Abstract: HBV genomes have been described even in HBsAg-negative patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in liver transformation is still unclear. We assessed the rate of persistence, the structure, and the RNA expression of HBV genomes in HBsAg-negative HCC using HBV- DNA PCR and HBV-RNA RT-PCR. HBV DNA genomes have been detected in 37 (59%) of 63 HBsAg-negative HCC. Defective genomes have been found more frequently in tumorous than nontumorous tissues (19/29 vs 1/9) and in seronegative than seroconverted patients (9/12 vs 1/7). A significant accumulation of X RNA was shown in 7/9 tumorous and 7/8 nontumorous tissues. By contrast, S and C RNAs were barely expressed in both tumorous and nontumorous tissues. These results suggest a role for the potentially transforming, transactivating X protein in the HBV-related liver carcinogenesis in HBsAg-negative patients.