Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in L02 Human Hepatocyte Induced by Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein

Background and aims: hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection represents a major problem of public health with 170 millionchronically infected individuals worldwide. it has been reported that hcvcore protein plays an important role in diseasepathogenesis and cancerogenesis. the objectives of this study are to understand the gene expression changes in l02human hepatocyte induced by hcv core protein and provide information about the pathogenesis and cancerogenesis.methods: to determine the effect of core protein on gene expression in hepatocytes, suppression subtractivehybridization technique and semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were used to identifyover-expressed genes in l02-core cells that express hcv core protein in a stable fashion.results: thirty-four known genes, which were differentially expressed between the two cells, were identifiedsuccessfully. most of the differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in cell migration, cell proliferation andsignal transduction. in l02-core cells, the over-expression level of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer ishighest, suggesting that hcv core protein contributes to the migration of liver tumor cells.conclusions: these findings can explain the role of core protein in disease pathogenesis and cancerogenesis, andsuggest that the core protein may be a potential cause of induction of hepatocellular carcinoma invasion.