Genetic variants of the IgA Fc receptor (FcalphaR, CD89) promoter in chronic hepatitis C patients.

Fc receptor for IgA (FcalphaR, CD89) is capable of triggering IgA-mediated immune responses to pathogens and has been proposed to function in circulating IgA clearance. Because inheritable variations modifying individual immune responses or immunoglobulin catabolism may affect the chronicity of viral infection, we investigated whether promoter polymorphisms of the FcalphaR gene (FCAR) affect chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and its disease progression. The two -311T/C and -142T/C single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were studied by direct DNA sequencing in 177 Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC).

Twenty-four weeks of interferon alpha-2b in combination with ribavirin for Japanese hepatitis C patients: sufficient treatment period for patients with genotype 2 but not for patients with genotype 1.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA titer and HCV genotype are two major determinants of the outcome of interferon (IFN) monotherapy. To clarify the usefulness of combination therapy with IFN and ribavirin in Japanese hepatitis C patients, we treated patients with a relatively high dose of IFN in combination with ribavirin for 24 weeks and examined the effects in relation to the viral parameters.

Methods: Two hundred and ninety-five patients were enrolled in the study.

Detection of telomerase activity, telomerase RNA component, and telomerase reverse transcriptase in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

The aim of this study was to estimate the correlation between telomerase activity and the expression of human telomerase RNA component (hTERC), human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to analyze the influence of the nucleotide homology of the hTERC template region on telomerase activity. Six HCC patients and two chronic hepatitis patients were enrolled in this study. Telomerase activity was determined using the fluorescence-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) method.