Genotype of Hepatitis B Virus Isolates from Iranian Chronic Carriers of the Virus

Background and aims: determination of the genotypes and subtypes of hepatitis b virus (hbv) provides epidemiologicaldata, which can contribute further to vaccination and antiviral treatment strategies, diagnostic development, andprediction of the disease course. the aim of this study was to describe the molecular characterization and phylogeneticanalysis of 60 hbv s-region isolated from native iranian patients with chronic hbv infection.methods: hbv-positive sera were collected from iranian patients with hepatitis b infection in tehran hepatitis center.hbv-dna was extracted and the partial hbv s orf (677bp) were chosen for amplification and sequencing.results: by comparing the sequences of hbv isolated from iranian patients with so complete sequences of hbvretrieved from the genbank database, representing all other existing genotypes, the sequences of all 60 patients wereconsistent with that of genotype d. all hbv isolates from iranian patients were clustered in genotype d branch withhigh bootstrap values.conclusions: sixty hbv isolates from iranian patients with chronic hepatitis b represent homogenous genotypicdiversity. these sequences of iranian hbv genomes may contribute to the information on the genetic diversity of hbvworldwide.