Clinico-epidemiological study of GBV-C/HGV infection in Tokyo metropolitan, and Nanjing and Yanbian cities in the People's Republic of China

In the present study, we compared the molecular epidemiology of GBV-C/HGV c o-infection and the clinical profiles in patients diagnosed with either typ e B or type C hepatitis virus infection from Nanjing in Southeast China and Yanbian in Northeast China, with those at the Nihon University Hospital in Tokyo. The patients included 97 men in Nanjing, 66 men and women in Yanbia n, and 249 men and women at the Nihon University Hospital. GBV-C/HGV RNA wa s detected using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction as describ ed by Abe et al. The prevalence of GBV-C/HGV co-infection in Nanjing, Yanbi an, and Tokyo was 18.8, 23.3, and 3.5% in type B liver diseases, respective ly, and 3.6, 11.1, 7.3% in type C liver diseases, respectively. A compariso n of background factors between GBV-C/HGV RNA-positive and -negative patien ts revealed no significant differences in any parameter between Nanjing, Ya nbian, and Tokyo. A phylogenic tree analysis of nucleotide sequences showed that the Nanjing strain was closely related to the Shanghai, Hong Kong, an d Tokyo isolates, while the Yanbian isolate was closely related to the Kore an, Mongolia, and Tokyo strains. These isolates were classified to the East Asian type of genotype 3. The results of the phylogenic tree analysis sugg ests that the GBV-C/HGV isolates from China and Japan have a common origin. Therefore, the prevalence of GBV-C/HGV infection may be geographically det ermined, irrespective of racial differences. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Irel and Ltd. All rights reserved.