Objective To investigate the clinical and pathological features of patients co-infected with hepatitis B virus(HBV)and hepatitis C virus(HCV)and to study the underlying interaction between HBV and HCV in these patients.Methods The liver biopsy and sera samples of 226 patients with chronic hepatitis were collected.Real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction were used tO measure HBV DNA and HCV RNA,respectively.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)was utilized to detect HBV serological marker and anti-HCV antibody.Liver biopsy examination was performed through needle aspiration.HBsAg and HBcAg in liver tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry,while HBV DNA and HCV RNA were detected by in situ hybridization.Results Sixty two point five percent patients co-infected with HBV and HCV suffered from severe hepatitis,while the rates of those infected with HBV or HCV alone were 27.1%and 30.6%,respectively(X2=14.70,P＜0.01).The serum alanine aminotransferase,aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin.direct bilirubin and albumin levels of patients infected with HBV alone were higher than those of patients co-infected with HBV and HCV or those infected with HCV alone,which showed statistically significant difference(X2=8.52.P＜0.05).The HBsAg titers in serum samples and in liver tissue samples were inconsistent in both co-infected patients and HCV mono infected patients (X2=15.60,P＜0.01).The HBV DNA positive rate of co-infected patients was 12.5%,which was lower than that of patients infected with HBV alone(87.7%,X2=17.66,P＜0.01).Meanwhile,the HCV RNA positive rate of patients co-infected with HBV and HCV was 75.0%,which was lower than that of patients infected with HCV alone(80.6%).However,the difference was not statistically significant(P＞0.05).Conclusion Co-infection with HBV and HCV may induce severer liver injury than HBV infection or HCV infection alone.

AIM: To investigate the expression of microRNA-375 (miR-375) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to analyze the target genes and signaling pathways regulated by miR-375.METHODS: The expression of miR-375 was examined at tissue microarray of HCC by in situ hybridization.The whole human genome chip and bioinforma-tics analysis were applied to screen out the differential expression genes and signaling pathways in 4 HCC cell lines trans-fected with miR-375 mimic.RESULTS:In situ hybridization showed the expression of miR-375 in HCC tissues were obvi-ously higher than that in tumor-adjacent tissues (P<0.05).There were 20 co-upregulated genes and 17 co-downregulated genes in all 4 cell lines.Bioinformatic analysis showed that there were 54 signaling pathways related to up-regulated genes and 48 signaling pathways related to down-regulated genes in all 4 cell lines.CONCLUSION: miR-375 may play a key role in the pathological process of HCC.The bioinformatic analysis is able to screen the target genes and signaling pathways regulated by miR-375 and to provide an explicit direction for further mechanism research on HCC.

Purpose To explore the relationship between the change of space anterior to right portal vein and the pathological staging in liver ifbrosis/cirrhosis. Materials and Methods Plain and contrast enhanced CT scan were performed in patients with biopsy proven liver ifbrosis/cirrhosis including S1 in 17 patients, S2 in 13 patients, S3 in 15 patients, S4 in 21 patients and cirrhosis in 22 patients. Twenty subjects were included as control group. The width of anterior space of right portal vein was measured on contrast enhanced CT and correlated with ifbrosis staging. The receiver operating characteristic curve was created for cirrhosis diagnosis. Results The width of anterior space of right portal vein enlarged in patients with S3 ifbrosis to cirrhosis (P<0.05 or P<0.01). It was signiifcantly bigger in group S4 compared to other groups (P<0.01). Spearman rank correlation analysis showed significant positive correlation between the width of anterior space and liver fibrosis staging (r=0.704, P<0.01). ROC curve analysis showed the area under curve (AUC) of 0.897 with the optimum width of ≥10 mm. Conclusion The change in the space anterior to the right portal vein is positively correlated with live ifbrosis staging. CT measurement helps early diagnose and assess the severity of liver ifbrosis and cirrhosis.