Abstract: Objective To explore potential correlation between liver inflammatory response and viral infection index in patients with hepatitis B virus(HBV). Methods Totally 198 serum samples from HBV infected patients and healthy subjects were collected. Patients were divided into different groups according to alanine transaminase/aspartate transaminase(ALT/AST), HBV-DNA, hepatitis B E Antigen(HBeAg) and liver cirrhosis situation; ELISA was used to determine the B cell-attracting chemokine 1(BCA-1) and stem cell factor(SCF) level; the relationship between BCA-1, SCF and other clinical indicators, including ALT/AST, HBV-DNA, HBeAg and cirrhosis condition, were analyzed in different groups; the data was analyzed either with unpaired t test, or with Mann-Whitney U test according to normal distribution, and Spearman method was used for correlation analysis. Results The levels of serum BCA-1 and SCF in HBV infected patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls(P＜0.001). The serum SCF level was significantly higher in cirrhosis patients than patients without cirrhosis(P＜0.01). The BCA-1 level was significantly different between HBV-DNA+ and HBV-patients, as well as between alpha-fetoprotein(AFP) normal and abnormal patients(P＜0.05). BCA-1 was significantly higher in HBV-DNA+ patients than that in HBV-DNA-patients and was lower in AFP abnormal patients than in normal patients. Furthermore, BCA-1 was positively relate to HBV-DNA and HBeAg level(R=0.314, R=0.456,P＜0.01). Conclusions BCA-1 was significantly related to HBV DNA, while SCF is upregulated in cirrhosis patients with HBV infection, which may be the potential candidate of clinical indicators for HBV infection.

Key words: HBV infection, B cell-attracting chemokine 1(BCA-1), stem cell factor(SCF), serum factor detection