Association between chronic hepatitis B patients and IL28B gen polymorphisims and gen expression

ABSTRACT ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CHRONIC HEPATITIS B PATIENTS AND IL28B GEN POLYMORPHISIMS AND GEN EXPRESSION More than 350 million people are diagnosed for hepatitis B (HB) annually and about 600.000 people die because of the complications associated with HB such as schirrosis and hepatocellüler carcinoma. Drugs used for threatment and parameters used to predict prognosis of choronic hepatitis B (CHB) are insufficient, this is led to new studies about this field. It has been shown that; baseline ALT level, gender, age, TNF, IFN, vitamin D receptor, estrogen receptor alpha and genetic variations of HLA locus are associated with chronic hepatitis B infection. Currently it is accepted that IL28B gene polymorphism on chromosome 19 is closely associated with permanent virologic response and spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. This gene is responsible for the synthesis of IFN λ. Recent studies about CHB association with IL28B are being published as well as HCV infection. İn this study we investigated IL28B polymorphism ratio and association between this polymorphism and HBV susceptibility, viral clearence, disease progression, viral load, and liver inflamation in patients with CHB in Elazığ city of Turkey. In our study we compared CHB (n=117) and patient group get over hepatitis B (n=39) groups in terms of IL28B gene polymorphisms of rs12979860 and rs12980275 genes loci. Between these groups, rs12979860 gene locus polymorphism rates were not significant (p=0,835). But rs12980275 gene locus polymorphism rates between these groups were significantly different. We determined that in rs12979860 gene locus; A/A is an important risk factor for HBV infection chronicity (p<0.001) and the G/A and G/G is an important protective factor against hepatitis B infection chronicity. In this study IL28B rs12979860 CC gene allele frequency in CHB group were found %56. This rate may be different according to the world's geographic regions. A significant relationship between IL28B expression level and HBeAg status and IL28B gene polymorphism was not determined. However, a few studies have previously identified a relationship between these parameters. In our study, mutations in rs12979860 and rs12980275 gene loci at the same time were found to be very high. But this did not have any clinical significance. In summary, our study is the first report on this subject in east of Turkey. IL28B gene polymorphism genotipe rates will be useful for studies in the future about this subject. In the past; studies were emphasised association between HBV infection and IL28B rs12979860 gene locus. However studies about HBV infection and IL28B rs12980275 gene locus was not emphasised. It will take attention to this gene locus after our significant results. Keywords: Chronic hepatitis B, IL28B polymorphism, IL28B expression, Elazığ city, Turkey