T29C Genotype Polymorphism Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha And Early Response To Interferon-alpha Treatment In Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B

Background Chronic hepatitis B is one of the major infectious diseases and cause a great harmness to human health. Virological clearance, delayed progression to cirrhosis or liver cancer, and increased survival are the long-term goals of antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients. Antiviral therapy is the cure among all the therapies with chronic hepatitis B. Identification of factors correlated with therapeutic response, especially the host factor may contribute a lot to individual treatment. This study aimed at investigating whether T29C genotype polymorphism of estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) is associated with the initial response to interferon-alpha (IFN-α) therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients.Methods The initial responses of 100 patients to IFN-αtherapy were evaluated and compared by classifying them into three groups according to T29C genotype polymorphism of ESR1: T/T, T/C, and C/C genotype groups. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) was used to analyze the genotype polymorphism in T29C genotype.Results (1)No significant difference among the three genotypes was found in terms of the distribution of gender (χ2 =1.148, P = 0.563), age (F = 1.153, P = 0.320), initial ALT level (F = 0.862, P = 0.441), pretreatment HBV DNA (Z = 1.961, P = 0.161), pretreatment HBeAg status (χ2 = 0.055, P = 0.973), and type of IFN-α(χ2 = 0.841, P = 0.657); (2) The initial combined response consist of initial no response, partial response, and complete response. The respective frequencies in among response, partial response, and complete response in the T/T group were 14.55%, 56.36% and 29.09% respectivelly. The frequencies were 27.27%, 54.54% and 18.19% in the T/C group, and 73.91%, 17.40% and 8.69% in the C/C group. The initial combined response between the T/T and T/C groups was not significantly different (Z = 2.078, P = 0.354). However, the initial combined response among the T/T, T/C, and C/C groups was significantly different (Z = 35.558, P =0.000); (3)The respective frequencies of the initial virological response among the T/T, T/C and C/C groups were 60.00%, 63.64% and 30.43%, respectively. The frequenciy of initial virological response among the T/T, T/C, and C/C genotype groups was signiicantly different(χ2=6.751, P = 0.034). In addition, the frequencies of initial virological response in the T/T and T/C groups were higher than in the C/C group (χ2 = 5.674, P = 0.017andχ2 = 4.980, P = 0.026, respectively). However, No signiicant difference was found between the T/T and T/C groups (χ2 = 0.087, P = 0.768); (4) Of the 78 initially HBeAg-positive patients, only 22 achieved initial HBeAg disappearance or seroconversion,and the remaining 56 achieved neither. There spective frequencies of initial HBeAg disappearance or seroconversion among the T/T, T/C, and C/C groups were 34.15%, 27.78%, and 15.79% (χ2 = 2.163, P = 0.339). In addition, the initial HBeAg disappearance or seroconversion between T/T and T/C groups was not signiicantly different (χ2 = 0.232, P = 0.630). No signiicant difference was found between the T/C and C/C groups (χ2 = 0.236, P = 0.627), and the difference between the T/T and C/C groups was not signiicant (χ2 = 2.155, P = 0.142).Conclusion The T29C genotype polymorphism of ESR1 is associated with the initial response to IFN-αin patients with chronic hepatitis B, and might be a significant marker in predicting the initial response to IFN-α, at least in this study population.