Our data show that MSCs injection can be used for the treatment of end-stage liver disease with satisfactory tolerability. Furthermore, this treatment may improve clinical indices of liver function in end-stage liver disease.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major cause of liver disease worldwide. Eight genotypes and 24 subgenotypes of HBV have been identified. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of HBV genotypes, subgenotypes and subtypes, and to understand HBV genetic variability in the HBV genome circulating in Iranian provinces. Two hundred and forty-nine sera from HBV-infected patients living in 25 provinces of Iran were collected (2004-2007). A part of the HBV S/pol and whole BCP/C genes were amplified, sequenced and then subjected to phylogenetic, recombination and genetic variability analysis. Results revealed genotype D of HBV in all samples and subgenotypes D1 (98.52%), D2 (0.74%) and D3 (0.74%) among Iranian patients living in different provinces of Iran. Subtypes ayw2 (94.4%), ayw1 (2.8%), ayw3 (2%) and ayw4 (0.4%) were deduced, on the basis of HBV small surface antigen (HBsAg) amino acid sequences. The mean percentage intra-genotypic distance of S plus core regions was 2.8%; the mean percentage inter-genotypic distance of this region between Iranian strains and genotype D isolates was 3.1%; and this rate for other genotypes was 5.2-11.4%. Various rates of point mutations have been found within different HBV genes, e.g. HBsAg (17.2%), precore-G1896A (59.5%) and Basal core promoter (BCP) double mutations (49.2%), whereas no recombination was found. In conclusion, these results indicate that the only genotype circulating in the provinces of Iran is genotype D. There exist high genetic variabilities in the S/pol and BCP/C regions among the Iranian HBV isolates.

Background-Recent studies have suggested that Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) play a key role in eliminating hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the major causative agents of acute and chronic liver disease worldwide and is believed to be responsible for a million deaths annually. Eight genotypes of HBV, A to H, have been described on the basis of similarity of the complete genomes sequence. Although, it is reported that the predominant HBV genotype in the Mediterranean area and the middle east is genotype D, there are no reports on HBV genotypes prevalent in Iran. In this study, the C and S regions of HBV from 26 chronic hepatitis B Iranian patients were amplified and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all Iranian HBV isolates sequences were classified into genotype D with bootstrap values of 100%, 73%, and 100% (1,000 replicates each) for S, C, and preS2 regions, respectively. The mean percent intra-distance of S and C regions were 0.8% and 2.3%, respectively. The mean percent inter-distance of S and C regions between Iranians and genotype D isolates were 1.7% and 3.0%, respectively, and the range of mean percent nucleotide distance of S and C regions between Iranians and the other reference isolates were 7.9%-17.5% and 4.8%-14.7%, respectively. Thirteen out of 23 HBV C region sequences showed nucleotide "A" at position 1896 (precore mutant) in C region. Nucleotide 1858 showed presence of "T" in all isolates. No insertion or deletion was found in both regions. SimPlot and BootScanning analyses did not show any recombination between Iranian isolates and other genotypes in both regions.

This study suggests that C3435T polymorphism of the MDR1 gene has an association with ulcerative colitis in Iranian population as previously reported in western countries.