Hepatitis C virus-NS3P in relation to p53, p21waf, mdm2, p21-ras and c-erbB2 in hepatocarcinogenesis.

Background: The non-structural protein 3 (NS3P) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome was linked to the neoplastic transformation of normal hepatocytes in chronically infected patients. However, the exact mechanisms involved in this process are unidentified yet, especially in the Egyptian population where the commonest type is genotype 4.

Methods: We investigated 32 HCV reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) positive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases and 18 morphologically normal hepatic tissues distant to tumors (MNT) for the correlation between HCV-NS3P, p53, p21(waf), mdm2, p21ras and c-erbB2 and DNA content by immunohistochemistry and image analysis.