Cryoglobulinemia in Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection: Host genetic and virological study

Essential cryoglobulinemia is associated closely with hepatitis C virus (HC V) infection. The mechanism responsible for occurrence of the disease is un clear. The aim of this study was to investigate pathogenetic roles of HCV i n cryoglobulinemia. One hundred sixty-seven consecutive patients with HCV w ere studied clinically by HCV grouping, HCV RNA levels, GBV-C/HGV, HCV quas ispecies (target region was hypervariable region-1) and HLA polymorphism. T he quasispecies in cryoprecipitate were compared with those in supernatant. The results of HLA polymorphism of patients with cryoglobulinemia were com pared with those without cryoglobulinemia and healthy controls. The frequen cy of HCV-related cryoglobulinemia was 71 of 167 (42.5%). Patients with cir rhosis (36 of 63, 57.1%) had cryoglobulinemia more frequently than those wi th chronic hepatitis (35 of 104, 33.7%, P <0.01). No significant difference s were not found between the two groups (patients with and without cryoglob ulinemia) in age, gender, HCV grouping, HCV RNA level and frequency of GBV- C/HGV. HCV was found quantitatively and clonally more frequently in the cry oprecipitate than in the supernatant. HLA polymorphism presented no signifi cant differences among three groups. The stage of liver disease is one of p athogenetic factors. The greater the presence of HCV quasispecies in cryopr ecipitate than in the supernatant indicates that various antigen presentati ons play an important role in the formation of cryoglobulin whereas HLA typ ing dose not seem to contribute to the development of cryoglobulinemia. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.