Abstract
Background and Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a major problem of public health with 170 million chronically infected individuals worldwide. It has been reported that HCV core protein plays an important role in disease pathogenesis and cancerogenesis. The objectives of this study are to understand the gene expression changes in L02 human hepatocyte induced by HCV core protein and provide information about the pathogenesis and cancerogenesis.
Methods: To determine the effect of core protein on gene expression in hepatocytes, suppression subtractive hybridization technique and semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were used to identify over-expressed genes in L02-Core cells that express HCV core protein in a stable fashion.
Results: Thirty-four known genes, which were differentially expressed between the two cells, were identified successfully. Most of the differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in cell migration, cell proliferation and signal transduction. In L02-Core cells, the over-expression level of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer is highest, suggesting that HCV core protein contributes to the migration of liver tumor cells.
Conclusions: These findings can explain the role of core protein in disease pathogenesis and cancerogenesis, and suggest that the core protein may be a potential cause of induction of hepatocellular carcinoma invasion.
Keywords
Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein Suppression Subtractive Hybridization Hepatocellular Carcinoma Extracellular Matrix Metalloproteinase Inducer Invasion
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