MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF INTRASPOUSAL TRANSMISSION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS

Background/Aims: Although intraspousal transmission of hepatitis C vir us (HCV) has been speculated, there is no direct evidence, Methods: To investigate whether transmission of HCV occurs by this route, 295 spo uses of persons diagnosed with HCV were studied, Of these, 25 (8.8%) t ested positive for anti-HCV Next, the HCV genotype was determined by p olymerase chain reaction using a mixed primer set, and cDNA was obtain ed in 17 of the 25 couples for comparison of the genotypes. Results: O f these 17, 14 (82.4%) spouses were shown to be infected with HCV of t he same genotype. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences of putative Fl gene of eight couples having the same HCV genotype revealed that five couples had remarkably high nucleotide sequence homologies (>97%), whe reas samples obtained from the remaining three couples showed relative ly low homology (91-92%). Nucleotide sequence homologies were signific antly higher between spouses than between non-spouse pairs of isolates , Phylogenetic analysis using the neighbor-joining method suggests tha t infection in these five couples probably occurred after marriage. Fu rthermore, none of the five couples had shared other possible transmis sion routes such as intravenous drug use, dental treatment or acupunct ure. Conclusion: These data strongly suggest the occurrence of intrasp ousal transmission of HCV.