Figure 1.
Distribution and frequencies of the amino acid mutations in the preC/C region based on the severity of the liver disease.
Black and grey bars represent mutations related to HCC and mild forms of liver disease, respectively. The dark-shaded regions are the MHC class I-restricted (core aa 18–27, 88–96, 130–140, 141–151) and the light-shaded regions are MHC class II-restricted T-cell epitopes of HBcAg (core aa 1–20, 50–69, 81–105, 117–131, 141–165). Asterisks and triangles indicate specific mutations related to HCC and affecting the HBeAg serostatus, respectively, in the present study. The red arrow indicates the six mutations, which were previously reported to be negatively related to HCC [36].
Table 1.
Comparison of the clinical features between patients with the wild type and mutations in the preC/C region.
Table 2.
Comparison of mutation rates between immuno-active and inactive regions of the preC/C region.
Table 3.
Comparison of mutation rates of the preC/C region between patients with HCC and the comparison group (LC+CH) in terms of the immuno-active and inactive regions.
Table 4.
Comparison of mutation rates the preC/C region between patients with two different HBeAg serostatus in terms of the immuno-active and inactive regions.
Figure 2.
Comparison of frequencies of preC/C mutations according to the severity of liver disease (A) and the HBeAg serostatus (B).
The types of mutations within the region of MHC I and II-restricted T-cell epitopes are marked.