The geographical distribution of hepatitis B virus (HBV) subgenotypes and their clinical implications in patients with acute and chronic hepatitis B in the Heilung-kiang province of northeast China were investigated. Nested PCR and multiplex PCR were performed with genotype-specific primers and with subgenotype-specific primers to identify genotypes and subgenotypes from serum samples of 412 HBV infections including 69 with acute self-limited hepatitis (ASH) and 343 with chronic hepatitis (CH). A total of 361 samples were genotyped and 304 were further subgenotyped. The most common HBV genotype was C (93.63%, 338/361), with subgenotype group C2 (83.73%, 283/338) predominating. Genotype B was also found and subgenotype B2 predominated within this genotype. Out of 69 infected patients with ASH, 48 were identified as genotype C and all belonged to subgenotype C2. Of 343 infected patients with CH, 313 were genotyped and 256 were subgenotyped; amongst these, C2 (91.80%, 235/256), B2 (7.42%, 19/256) and mixed subgenotypes B2 and C2 (0.78%, 2/256) were found. In HBV subgenotype C2 infections, ASH had a higher ratio of women than CH patients. These results show that HBV subgenotypes C2 and B2 were found in Heilung-kiang province of northeast China. In ASH and CH groups, the distributions of subgenotypes were coincident with C2, the predominant subgenotype. Analysis of the association between subgenotype and the outcomes of HBV infection was inconclusive in our study.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that a transcriptome network can be developed through a set of transcription factors regulated by the expression of various genes induced by dilated cardiomyopathy can be identified and modulated to respond to heart failure. We searched for significant pathways related to dilated cardiomyopathy using the GSE4172 microarray data to identify potential genes related to heart failure. We mapped differentially expressed genes to pathways and constructed a regulation network to investigate the regulatory relationships between transcription factors and pathways. Some transcription factors and target genes in the networks have been clearly linked to heart failure in previous studies. We also found new transcription factors and target genes, such as CCAAT/ enhancer-binding protein delta and JunB, responsible for inflammatory cardiomyopathy. Transcriptome network analysis was useful in the identification of candidate genes in heart failure. This method is well suited for microarray data and therefore is proposed as a powerful tool in the search for new pathways related to disease.