Genotype Analysis of Hepatitis B Virus Isolated from Korean Hepatitis Patients

Background : Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is classified into 7 genotypes (A-G) that have distinct geographic distribution. Several studies have suggested that the HBV genotypic differences influence the severity of liver disease and clinical outcomes such that genotype C is associated with more advanced liver diseases and genotype B is associated with the earlier development of hepatocellular carcinoma. With the different genotypes of HBV reported in Shanghai, Taiwan and Japan, we tried to investigate the distribution of the HBV genotype and the utility of HBV genotyping tests in the Korea population. Methods : A total of 51 HBV DNA positive serum from Korean hepatitis B patients were used for the genotyping. After PCR and sequencing, HBV genotypes were determined by phylogenetic analysis using the NCBI database (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Results : By phylogenetic analysis in the Pre-S region, all the genotypes of HBV (100%) proved to be C. Conclusions : All patients in this study had genotype C. This result is consistent with previous studies reporting 96-100% distribution of genotype C in Korea. HBV genotyping in Korea is not informative in predicting individual variation of clinical outcome, so that it is meaningless to genotype HBV in routine laboratory genotyping.