Mutation analysis of DC-SIGN promoter in chronic hepatitis B patients.

Objective: To investigate whether there is mutation in DC-SIGN promoter region in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and healthy persons previously infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and to explore the relationship between the mutation in dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhension molecule-3-grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN) promoter region and HBV.
Methods: The studied population was composed of two cohorts: 47 CHB patients and 20 healthy persons previously infected with HBV. The mutation in DC-SIGN promoter region was detected with PCR, single-stranded conformational polymorphism and heteroduplex analysis, cloning, sequencing and aligning the published DC-SIGN promoter sequence.
Results: The characteristic mutation within DC-SIGN promoter region in HBV infected individuals was observed. In the DC-SIGN promoter region, 4 hot spot mutations located in positions -139, -142, -222, and -336 were observed in the CHB patients, but only 1 spot mutation located in position -139 was observed in the healthy persons previously infected with HBV. The -336C which was absent in the healthy persons previously infected with HBV was shown in 11 CHB patients (23.40%). The -139T was far more frequent in the healthy persons previously infected with HBV (100%) than in the CHB patients (34.04%).
Conclusion: In the DC-SIGN promoter region, -336C may be a genetic risk factor for developing CHB, but -139T may be associated with protection against HBV.