Up-regulation Of KCNJ15 In Severe Hepatitis

ObjectiveOur previous studies have shown that KCNJ15 was over expressed by 6 times in severe hepatitis B, compared with mild and healthy controls. This study is to investigate whether KCNJ15 can be stimulated by HBV encoding protein.MethodsGenomic DNA was extracted from PBMC of a chronic severe hepatitis patient. Truncation was carried out to define the full promoter segment. The full promoter/ luciferase plasmid was constructed and all the plasmids were verified by electrophoretic analysis and DNA sequencing. CHO and HEpG2 cell lines were transfected by lipofectamine 2000. The full promoter/ luciferase plasmid was cultivated with HBc-Ag, HBs-Ag, HBx-Ag and inflammatory factors, respectively. Then the activities of luciferase andβ-galactosidase were detected to determine the influence of these substances.ResultsThe promoter/ luciferase plasmid was successfully constructed. Up-regulation of KCNJ15 promoter was observed in both CHO and HEpG2 cells which illustrated that KCNJ15 gene can be activated by HBV encoding proteins HBx-Ag. Conclusions:The over expression of KCNJ15 gene in severe hepatitis B and the up-regulation of KCNJ15 promoter by HBx-Ag suggested the important role of KCNJ15 gene in severe hepatitis.