Expression Profile of Interferon Regulatory Factor 1 in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus-Infected Liver Transplant Patients

摘要

Objectives: Hepatitis B virus, which mainly affects normal liver function, leads to severe acute and chronic hepatitis, resulting in cirrhosis and hepato-cellular carcinoma, but can be safely treated after liver transplant. Evaluation of determinative biomarkers may facilitate more effective treatment of post-transplant rejection. Therefore, we investigated interferon regulatory factor 1 expression in hepatitis B virus-infected liver transplant patients with and without previous rejection compared with controls. Materials and Methods: Hepatitis B virus-infected liver recipients were divided into those with (20 patients) and without a rejection (26 patients), confirmed by pathologic analyses in those who had a rejection. In addition, a healthy control group composed of 13 individuals was included. Expression levels of interferon regulatory factor 1 were evaluated during 3 follow-ups after transplant using an in-house comparative SYBR green real-time polymerase chain reaction method. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS software (SPSS: An IBM Company, version 16.0, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Modifications of interferon regulatory factor 1 gene expression levels in patient groups with and without rejection were not significant between days 1, 4, and 7 after liver transplant. Interferon regulatory factor 1 mRNA expression levels were down-regulated in patients without rejection versus patients with rejection, although not significantly at day 1 ( P = .234) and day 4 ( P = .302) but significantly at day 7 ( P = .004) after liver transplant. Conclusions: Down-regulation of interferon regulatory factor 1 gene expression in hepatitis B virus patients without rejection emphasized counteraction between hepatitis B virus replication and interferon regulatory factor 1 production. On the other hand, interferon regulatory factor 1 gene overexpression in patients with rejection may result in inflammatory reactions and ischemic-reperfusion injury. Therefore, a better understanding of the association between interferon regulatory factor 1 and hepatitis B virus pathogenesis in a larger population with longer follow-up is needed.