Real-time quantitation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in tumorous and surrounding tissue from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Few data are available on the levels of HBV DNA
in liver tissue of patients with hepatocellular
carcinoma. In this study, HBV DNA was quantitated
by a TaqMan real-time PCR method and
results were normalised to an endogenous reference
gene. The assay could detect reproducibly
viral sequences from over 107 to less than
50 copies/mg of liver DNA. The HBV DNA content
in liver samples from 11 HBsAg-positive patients
(median: 105 copies/mg of DNA) was significantly
higher (P<0.001) compared to the viral DNA
concentration detected in liver samples from 15
of 25 HBsAg-negative patients (median: 2.6102
copies/mg). A liver DNA amount 1 HBV DNA
copy per cell was detected in half of tissue
samples from HBsAg-positive patients, and in
none from HBsAg-negative ones. Liver tissue
HBVDNAcontent was significantly higher in anti-
HCV-negative than in anti-HCV-positive cases
(P<0.001). These results show that the quantitation
of liver HBV DNA by real-time PCR can be
useful to understand HBV state in hepatocellular
carcinoma and viral interplay in patients with
multiple viral infections.