OBJECTIVETo study the clinical effect of combination of kurarinone (KR) and interferon a-lb (IFNalpha-1b) in treating chronic hepatitis B.

METHODSOne hundred and forty-six patients with chronic hepatitis B were randomized into four groups. Under the basic conventional treatment, additional KR combined IFNa-lb was given to Group A, IFNa-lb to Group B and KR to Group C while none was given to Group D. The therapeutic course for them was 6 months and succeeded with 6 months of follow-up. Changes in liver histology, expression of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) in liver tissue, and serum levels of TGF-beta, hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), collagen type IV (IVC), precollagen III (PCIII), as well as the negative conversion rate of HBeAg and HBV DNA, and normalization rate of alanine transaminase (ALT) before and after treatment were observed by immuno chemical method, RIA and ELISA.

RESULTSAfter treatment, in Group A, the scores of liver fibrosis and all the above-mentioned indexes significantly lowered, as compared with those in Group B and C, the difference was significant (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The negative conversion rate of TGF-beta in liver tissue was in accordance with the dynamic change of liver fibrosis. Comparison between Group B and C in those aspects showed insignificant difference (P >0.05).

CONCLUSIONKR combined with IFNalpha-1b shows better effect in treating chronic hepatitis B than that of using either of the two alone.