Detection of minus-strand hepatitis C virus RNA in tumor tissues of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

Recently, the detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody has been widely performed for clinical serum testing of HCV infection and can be identified in most hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases in Japan. In the current study, the authors detected not only plus-strand but also minus-strand HCV RNA as a template for RNA replication in hepatocytes in the resected tumors of HCC, and they investigated those significant for HCC. The plus-strand and minus-strand HCV RNA were detected using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction after the extraction of RNA from the tumor and nontumor tissues of hepatectomized liver, respectively. The detection of HCV RNA in liver tissues from hepatectomized specimens of 20 cases was as follows: in nontumor regions, both of the plus- and minus-strand HCV RNA were detected in 14 cases. Among those cases, plus- and minus-strand HCV RNA were detected in 11 cases, and in another 2 cases, only plus-strand HCV RNA was found in the tumor regions. These results suggest that HCV RNA is able to replicate in tumor tissues of HCC and may be involved in the development of HCC and also that HCV in remnant hepatocytes may cause the recurrence of HCC as secondary carcinogenesis after hepatectomy.