Objective: To investigate the evolution of HCV quasispecies in persistent and self-limited infection patients.
Methods: Peripheral blood HCV preserved for 10 years from 8 naive patients were analyzed. HCV core and E2 genes were cloned and sequenced. Genetic distances of different isolates at different time were analyzed by phylip software.
Results: The genetic distances of HCV quasispecies were higher in persistent infection patients than that of self-limited patients. In each patient the genetic distance of HCV E2 region isolates were higher than that of HCV C region which has some relationship between each other. In the 4 persistent patients there exist no differences between within-group and between-group genetic distance in HCV C region and also exist no differences in HCV E2 region in 2 of the 4 persistent patients.
Conclusions: The diversity degree of HCV quasispecies may affect the outcome of hepatitis C. Research on HCV C and E2 region to study HCV quasispecies may obtain different results. The distribution of HCV quasispecies may be stable in hepatitis C natural history.