Journal of medical virology
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Comparative Study
Association of genetic polymorphism of low-density lipoprotein receptor with chronic viral hepatitis C infection in Han Chinese.
To study the association between the Ava II polymorphism at the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDL-R) gene exon 13 locus and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the Han Chinese, 84 chronic HCV-infected patients without anti-viral treatment, and 72 healthy blood donors were studied. Polymerase chain reaction combined with restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to detect the Ava II polymorphism at the LDL-R gene exon 13 locus. The comparisons of genotype distribution and allele frequency between chronic HCV-infected patients and healthy controls showed statistically significant differences (P = 0.045 and P = 0.036, respectively). ⋯ These results suggest that the Han Chinese have Ava II polymorphism at the LDL-R gene exon 13 locus. The Ava II polymorphism at the LDL-R gene exon 13 locus showed a statistically significant difference between chronic HCV-infected patients and healthy controls, indicating a significant contribution of the Ava II polymorphism in susceptibility to HCV infection in these patients. The MAF C in HCV RNA negative group was higher than that in HCV RNA positive group, suggesting that the Ava II polymorphism might also be associated with viremia in patients with HCV infection.