[Relationship between TT virus infection and hepatocellular carcinoma]

To clarify the relationship between TT virus (TTV) infection and the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

TTV was examined in sera of 112 patients with HCC and 95 patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) without HCC. 30 patients without liver disease were examined as control. TTV DNA was detected by the second generation of TTV PCR primers (NG059, NG061 and NG063) after extraction of DNA from 50 microliters serum. The relationship between TTV infection and clinical features of each group patients was analyzed.

TTV DNA was detected in 17.86% (20/112) of HCC patients, and this prevalence in HCC patients was not significantly higher than that of TTV DNA in CLD patients (15.78%, 15/95). There were no significant differences in age, gender, tumor factors (size, TNM classification and markers) and other hepatitis virus markers between TTV-positive and TTV-negative in HCC and CLD patients, except history of blood transfusion [(80.00% vs 35.87% (P < 0.05) in HCC patients and 73.33% vs 27.50% (P < 0.05) in CLD patients)] and ALT [(93 +/- 27) IU/L vs (68 +/- 31) IU/L (P < 0.05) in HCC patients]. It seemed that TTV did not do any harm to the liver function of patients who infected with HBV or HCV, except for elevating ALT level in such a kind of HCC patients.

Although TTV could do harm to the liver function of HCC patients, it does not contribute to the development of HCC from CLD.