[Gene expression profile of peripheral blood monocyte in patients with fulminant hepatitis B by cDNA microarray].

Objective: To investigate peripheral blood monocyte (PBMC) gene expression profile in patients with fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) by cDNA microarray.

Methods: Microarrays consisting of 8,192 human cDNAs and labelled cDNAs prepared from PBMC in both 10 FHF patients and 10 asymtomatic surface antigen carriers (ASC) were applied to analyze gene expression. Relative ratios of gene expression in individuals were obtained by comparing the hybridization results, by GenePix 4000B scanning and by ImaGene3.0 software analysis, of Cy5-labelled cDNA from FHF patients with those of Cy3-labelled cDNA from ASC.

Results: 249 genes out of 8,192 were identified differently, at least two times. Most of the genes (79%) involved in cell signaling transduction, cell cycles, metabolism, inflammatory response and apoptosis, whose mRNAs were differently regulated.

Conclusions: These results suggest that HBV infection alters a broad range of cellular genes expression during developing into FHF and provide a framework for future functional study on the genes expressed differently.