Abstract:

Objective To investigate the influence of hepatitis B virus（HBV） on the expression of homeobox protein A10（HOXA10） and its mechanism. Methods Totally,20 patients with chronic hepatitis B（CHB）（CHB group） and 23 healthy subjects（healthy control group） were enrolled,and peripheral blood mononuclear cells（PBMC） were isolated. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction（RT-qPCR）and western blotting were used to determine the expression of HOXA10 mRNA and protein in HepG2.2.15 cells,CHB group PBMC and healthy control group PBMC. The expression plasmids of HBV single gene（pCMV-S,pCMV-E,pCMV-C,pCMV-X and pCMV-P） were co-transfected with pGL3-HOXA10（a luciferase reporter gene which harbored HOXA10 gene promoter） into HepG2 cells,respectively,and the changes in luciferase activity were determined. Results The expression levels of HOXA10 mRNA and protein in HepG2.2.15 cells were higher than those in HepG2 cells（P=0.001）. The expression of HOXA10 mRNA in the PBMC of HBV patients was higher than that of healthy control group（P=0.001）. The luciferase activity of HepG2 cells transfected with pCMV-X was higher than that of HepG2 cells transfected with control vector pCMV-tag2B（P=0.001）. There was no statistical significance in luciferase activity between HepG2 cells transfected with other plasmids（P>0.05）. The expression levels of HOXA10 mRNA and protein in HepG2 cells transfected with pCMV-X were higher than those in HepG2 cells transfected with control vector pCMV-tag2B（P=0.001）. Conclusions HBV might up-regulate the expression of HOXA10 through its X gene.

Key words: Homeobox protein A10, Hepatitis B virus, X gene