The genotype C could play a key role in hepatitis B virus associated nephritis among the northwest Chinese children.

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) is a kind of immune complex-induced glomerulonephritis. The present study was designed to determine whether Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype is associated with glomerulonephritis in north-west Chinese children. Methods A total of 296 HBV-infected patients were enrolled in this study. The serum of patients was subjected to DNA extraction and the HBV genotypes were determined by PCR. Results The results showed that genotype C (49%) was predominant within the subjects, compared to HBV/B (38.5%), B/C recombinant (7.4%) and none B/C (5.1%). The serum tests showed that the changes of Complement 3 (C3) and alanine amino transferase (ALT) levels in the genotype C patients were significantly greater than those in the genotype B patients. The frequency of genotype C in HBV-GN patients was higher than that in non HBV-GN patients (χ2 value = 30.239, P P P  = 0.004). Conclusions The genotype C may play a role in HBV-GN children, via favoring HBV replication.