摘要
Hepatitis G virus (HGV) has recently been discovered as a potential causative agent for non-ABCDE hepatitis. However, it is not clear whether this virus is associated with chronic hepatitis that eventually leads to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To elucidate the role of HGV in the development of HCC, we examined the presence of HGV genome in nine HCC patients who had neither HBs antigen (Ag) or antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in serum and 21 HCC patients who had HBsAg and/or anti-HCV in serum. Detection of HGV-RNA in the liver and serum was performed by the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay followed by Southern blotting. HGV-RNA was not detectable in the serum or liver of any of the 9 HCC patients who had neither HBsAg or anti-HCV. In contrast, HGV-RNA was detected in the serum of 2 out of 6 HCC patients who had HBsAg alone, and in the serum of 4 out of 15 HCC patients who had anti-HCV alone. HGV-RNA was detected in the livers of 4 out of 6 patients whose sera contained HGV-RNA, but not detected in the livers of 24 patients who did not show HGV-RNA in serum. Our results suggest that the contribution of HGV to the development of HCC may be small although a co-carcinogenic role of HGV in hepatocarcinogenesis must be further investigated.