Original Paper

Molecular Epidemiology of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Genotypes and Serotypes in Patients with Chronic HBV Infection in Korea
Hong Kim^a, Young Mee Jee^b, Byung-Cheol Song^c, Jung Woo Shin^d, Soo Hyun Yang^e, Ho-Suk Mun^a, Hyun-Ju Kim^a, Eun-Ju Oh^a, Jung-Hwan Yoon^f, Yoon-Jun Kim^f, Hyo-Suk Lee^f, Eung-Soo Hwang^a, Chang-Yong Cha^a, Yoon-Hoh Kook^a, Bum-Joon Kim<sup>a

a</sup>Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Liver Research Institute and Cancer Research Institute, College of Medicine, Seoul National University,
^bDepartment of Enteroviruses, Division of Virology, National Institute of Health, Seoul,
^cDepartment of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Cheju National University, Jeju,
^dDepartment of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan, Ulsan,
^eDepartment of Internal Medicine, Seoul Veterans Hospital, and
^fDepartment of Internal Medicine and Liver Research Institute, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Address of Corresponding Author

Intervirology 2007;50:52-57 (DOI: 10.1159/000096313)

  Key Words

• Hepatitis B virus
• Genotype C2
• Serotype
• Phylogenetic analysis
• Direct sequencing
• Korean chronic patients

  Abstract

Objectives: Although hepatitis B virus (HBV) is endemic to Korea, no large-scale survey of HBV genotypes and serotypes based on sequence analysis has been performed. Methods: In the present study, we genotyped and serotyped HBV strains from 209 patients in two Korean regions, Seoul (107 patients) and Jeju (102 patients), an island off the southeastern Korean coast. Analyses were conducted using the direct sequencing method targeting the partial surface (S) gene (541 bp). Results: Phylogenetic analysis showed that all HBV strains from the 209 patients belonged to genotype C2 (100%). Of the 209 patients, 193 (92.3%), 12 (5.7%) and 1 (0.5%) were found to have the adr, adw and ayr serotypes, respectively. The other three strains (1.5%) showed unique serotype and were not typeable by sequence analysis. No HBV strains characteristic of Jeju island were observed. Conclusions: The extraordinary predominance of genotype C2 in chronic Korean patients, which is known to be associated with more severe liver disease than genotype B, suggests that the clinical manifestations of Korean HBV chronic patients are likely to differ from those found in other Asian countries, especially in Japan and Taiwan, where genotypes B and C coexist.

Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Bum-Joon Kim, PhD, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Liver Research Institute and Cancer Research Institute
College of Medicine, Seoul National University
28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-799 (Korea)
Tel. +82 2 740 8316, Fax +82 2 743 0881, E-Mail kbumjoon@snu.ac.kr

  Article Information

H.K. and Y.M.J. contributed equally to this work.

Received: May 2, 2006
Accepted: May 2, 2006
Published online: November 24, 2006
Number of Print Pages : 6
Number of Figures : 1, Number of Tables : 2, Number of References : 26