Progression of Fibrosis after Liver Transplantation

Background. The dynamics of hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasi species in the E2 region may correlate with the course of infection after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Methods. Thirty-four patients who underwent transplantation for HCV-related cirrhosis were studied. Serum and liver samples were available before OLT and at 1 week, 4 months, and 1 year after OLT. Patients were divided into group 1 (Knodell/Ishak fibrosis stage [FS] at 1 year,!2) and group 2 (FS at 1 year, 2). Complexity was estimated by the number of bands in a single-strand conformational polymorphism assay, whereas diversity was measured by Shannon entropy (SE) and median mobility shift (MMS) values derived from the heteroduplex mobility assay. Diversity dynamics were measured at transmission (before OLT vs. 1 week after OLT) and after OLT (1 week after OLT vs. 1 year after OLT). Results. Complexity was higher in group 1 patients than in group 2 patients before OLT ( ) and at 1 weekP!.0